UNIQUE MIXED PROCESS SILVER GELATIN PRINT - Self-Portrait in Blue (11X14)

The full title of this one-of-a-kind photograph is "Self-Portrait in Blue (aka Goodbye Gold Street Darkroom #8), San Diego, CA (Impermanence series).

Please note this lumen is NOT FIXED, which means if you put it in room that gets sunlight, the colors will keep changing. (Of course, once you own it, you're welcome to watch the colors change if you wish.)

A lumen is a sun print, a photograph made by doing the unthinkable. Intentionally taking black-and-white darkroom paper out of the darkroom and exposing it to sunlight, which is what makes it turn a wide range of colors. This is a cameraless photograph (a photogram), made with my own hands, as I work my materials, and think of my photograms more in terms of painting and sculpture (and sometimes printmaking). They are unique works of art that transcend beyond the realm of photography and they are printed on silver gelatin paper.

"Self-Portrait in Blue" is a location-specific photogram, made with materials I literally collected from Windansea Beach in La Jolla, CA (beach sand, seaweed, Pacific Ocean water, and more), and shipped to myself in NYC, specifically for location-specific (black-and-white) photograms (unique landscape photographs, made with the land and the sea). I began experimenting with lumen prints in April 2024, due to the (then upcoming) dismantling of my darkroom, and have continued to use what's left of the San Diego materials for all of them (I am thankful that inspiration took over so quickly as I do have a light box, but am sadly between darkrooms for a little while).

Before I began exposing this lumen print, I got the idea to paint a little cyanotype chemistry on the darkroom paper, to try to bring in some more color. My process for exposing lumens is I basically to let them expose until I like the base color enough to start bringing in. more colors/mess with my materials. I also used other chemistry to enhance the image, which is the chemigram part.

All of my images are what I refer to as organically occurring equivalents. (or subconscious self-portraits/spiritual landscape photographs), which reveal their deeper meaning during my printing process. However, with my experimental, cameraless photographs, that becomes more apparent once the titles comes to me (orientation is never final until the do).

[Some of you may recognize this print from Your Daily Photograph, where it debuted in July 20204.]