"Daily Ritual: A Flipbook" (2021)
For this piece, I wanted to go a step above what I have already created as a photographer. I have been learning so much about alternative processes in the past couple of months, and I wanted to create something physical and interactive with some of that new knowledge.
This piece combines the Van Dyke Brown alternative photographic process with bookmaking, in the form of a flipbook. This is something completely new for me, so this whole process was very educational. The subject of the flipbook is me performing a ritual of mine that I do every night before I go to sleep: braiding my hair. This simple action allowed me to focus on the more technical aspect of a flipbook. I took about 130 images of me performing this action, from start to finish. I then converted those images into digital negatives and created Van Dyke Brown prints out of them. I then combined all of these images in order, in a book format, to showcase me braiding my hair, that can be seen as one flips through the pages.
I loved this idea of bringing such a familiar action to life through images, almost in an animation. There are a few things I would do differently if I were to create something similar again in the future such as allowing more time to print the digital negatives, using slightly larger sizes of paper for my prints, and using slightly thinner paper as well, to make it easier to flip through the book.
Overall, this piece combines something I was previously unfamiliar with, alternative process photography, and something I am, and have been, familiar with, digital photography and a personal ritual of mine. That combination allowed for the creation of this interactive flipbook.
"Milwaukee Fairies" (2021)
One of the most interesting mythological creatures in history is the fairy. The biggest question is whether they exist or not. Too small to be seen with the naked eye, it’s hard to really prove one belief or the other. In the early 1900s, two young girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths seemingly captured the existence of the small species in a series of photographs called “Cottingly Fairies.” Letting the world debate the authenticity of the photographs, the two girls didn’t admit they were faked, using hand drawn illustrations, until the 1980s.
Inspired by the whimsical nature of this story, this series of my own is named “Milwaukee Fairies,” an ode to Wright and Griffiths’ proof of fairies’ existence, about one hundred years after their original series.
Hand drawn ink and watercolor fairies on top of cyanotype prints, the fairies are almost transparent, a nod to the mythology of fairies living among humans without our knowledge. Our practical minds say it’s impossible; but that side of us that holds onto the belief in something magical is the audience for this series.
The individual titles of each print are written in the same typeface that is used in the “Cottingly Fairies.” This sets the scene and describes the prints as if they are actual proof of the existence of this mythological creature.
A. Nymphs at the Window (Cyanotype Print from Digital Negative on Watercolor Paper, 2021)
B. Fairy Relaxing on Mushroom (Cyanotype Print from Digital Negative on Watercolor Paper, 2021)
