A chemigram is an alchemical drawing using mainly the same elements involved in the making of a traditional darkroom photograph: light, developer, fixer. Except that each unique combination is the picture, created and shaped with light, organic and chemical materials, and many other things that traditionally should not belong on photographic paper. I call it alchemical because whereas chemistry is scientific and repeatable, alchemy is about an unrepeatable and unexplainable transmutation.
As a process, it was discovered by Pierre Cordier in the 50s. Black and white photographic paper covered with different types of resists is ran through developer and fixer, back and forth, a process that can take seconds or hours.
The Chemigrams as photographic images move away from the traditional role of depicting the external reality. They take on a
self-referential role, they have no rules and they impose no rules on
the viewer. Nonetheless, as esthetic objects chemigrams are intriguing and ask for a dialogue: What do you see?
My process and practice are intuitive. The only consistent rule is the light. The process becomes a search of unique combinations that would yield new or unexpected results. These images are a collection of gestures and unexpected results.
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