Description
Unframed photograph
Sold in a protective pouch
Limited series of 25 prints, each copy is numbered and signed by the artist
Printed on Hahnemühle PhotoRag 100% cotton paper
11 x 14 '' (including the margin all around the artwork)
The artist places plants on expired photographic paper and exposes them to sunlight. The ephemeral traces left as they decompose are then digitized before disappearing.
- When sold unframed, the artwork is protected in an acid-free plastic sleeve, where it can be safely stored for an extended period.
Creation process
Professional photographer artist for thirty years, Nathalie Ampleman is particularly interested in photographic processes, old as well as digital. She finds the material for her works in the plants that line her environment.
Her creations are real witnesses of the cycle of life: the plant collected and installed on expired argentic paper heats up under the action of the sun, decomposes, and leaves, through its sweat, the trace of its passage on the paper. The photograms disappear quickly since they are not chemically fixed. They are therefore promptly digitized before being numerically refined.
What the artist gives us to see is nothing less than the ephemeral cycle of nature, both dazzling and delicate traces of life that will mesmerize you with their beauty.
The artist
Nathalie Ampleman
Sherbrooke
Like the alchemist who seeks adventure and chance, I experiment different ways of making images by combining the unforeseen and accidents of historical photographic processes with digital photography. These different processes are the triggers of my approach.
The work presented begins with the research and collection of plants found in my environment, that is to say flowers and plants that I expose in the sun on expired argentic photo paper. Not being fixed by any chemical process, the photograms disappear. Before their disappearance and to preserve the imprint, the argentic photo paper is digitized. The virtual images thus created are refined using digital tools. This artistic process reveals the complex process of plant decomposition while addressing its metamorphic power. It is also a testament to the cyclical nature of everything, as illustrated by the withering and dying plant on photographic paper.
This is only the beginning of an intangible exploration and the object obtained at the end is no longer what it was.