Nathalie Ampleman

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.