Transfers

In the arts and printing, transfer means to convey an image from one surface to another. By merging analog photographic processes with digital tools, the Transfers Series experiments with instant film image transfer processes as a departure point to comment upon the concept of change through time.  The multiple processes of the Transfers Series pose questions about the place, event, memory, and the certainty of photograph processes used in the creation of the image. The Transfer Series juxtaposes objects found and placed within unique landscapes. Offering the viewer multiple readings, Transfers is also suggestive of how we scan a landscape, moving across a scene to areas of special interest.

Each image in the Transfers Series begins as color transparency. The color transparency is exposed onto a single sheet of instant film, but before the emulsion can fully develop, the negative emulsion is transferred onto moistened watercolor paper. The watercolor paper accepts the moistened emulsion irregularly and unevenly, breaking and tearing, to create a unique positive image.  Each unique positive image is digitally scanned and enlarged and then merged using image editing software with the original slide used to create the final Transfers image. Selections from the Transfer Series were first exhibited in 2004. The concepts and processes employed in the Transfer Series remain an area of active interest and experimentation.

David Arnold, June 2015