AFTER BOYD
Made during a residency at Bundanon, on Dharawal Country, After Boyd returns to the stretch of the Shoalhaven River that Arthur Boyd painted for decades. I stood where Boyd stood, photographed the landscape he constructed in paint, and carried the negatives back to my own studio — the darkroom. The series sets three processes against one another: solarised, hand-printed gelatin silver photographs; cyanotypes exposed in contact with the landscape and washed with Shoalhaven river water, the chemistry of the place becoming the chemistry of the image; and durational exposures onto expired photographic paper, in which the river itself forms the image. Each process makes a different claim to know this place. The river's mirrored surface softens the line between what is seen and what is held beneath.
Exposed on the riverbank, the Shoalhaven washed directly over the light-sensitive surface. Cyanotype on cotton rag paper. Bundanon, 2022. Installation view.
I left the shutter open for several hours. When I returned, the river had made this image. Bundanon, 2022.
Unique solarised gelatin silver photograph, hand printed on archival fibre-based paper
Timber frame, stained black and waxed, museum grade non-reflective glass.