#glassplatenegative

2023-09-30

zeitspur - images from decayed glass negatives

I inherited about hundred 9x12 cm glass negatives found in my late grandfathers cellar. A flood in the 1980ies badly damaged the film emulsion.

The images portrayed live in a small German village just before WW II. Subjects show friends and family, but also Nazi party meetings and members of the SA.

But decay treated them all the same, be it a wedding or a meeting of Nazi comrades.

I see these images as a metaphor for remembering and amnesia alike. I explored them under a microscope.

I have not finished the project.

There is a dissonance between the "beauty of decay" and what the images actually show: the very ordinary life in Germany on the eve of war and atrocities.

What do you think? I'd love some input on this!

Gallery and project introduction: martin-liebermann.de/art.html#

#zeitspur
#decay
#rememberance
#amnesia
#Germany
#GlassPlateNegative
#GelatinEmulsion
#ArtProject
#photography
#PhotographicArt

Microscopic photography from a decayed glass plate negative. The image resembles a destroyed eye, the "eyelashes" are mould.Macroscopic photography from a decayed glass plate negative. The gelatin emulsion is partially cracked, leaving two abstract figures. Some sepia tint added in postprocessing.Dark field microscopic photography from a decayed glass plate negative. The gelatin emulsion is partyally cracked. Clay residues from a flood that caused the destruction of the image are smeared on the glass. They are orientated diagonally.Macroscopic photography from a decayed glass plate negative. The gelatin emulsion is partially scrathed and cracked.  From the rights rim and bottom some abstract filigree forms are  portruding. Slight sepia tint added in postprocessing.

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