A part of my Alternative Process final:

These are all images that I took a few years ago when I was in Southwestern Oklahoma for OSAI. They’re shot B&W, but I’ve never actually printed any of them, so this is my first time seeing these images at this scale. Quite a bit of the detail has been lost by the cyanotype process, but I’m okay with that because it makes it feel vintage and almost like it belongs in another world.

There are some things I might change when/if I reprint some of these. The second image in particular is giving me a little bit a trouble. I keep going back and forth over whether or not I should keep the streaky mess at the bottom (a mistake in coating). I really enjoy the way it looks and I’ve never really been one to nit-pick over things like that (I am an imperfectionist, afterall), but I’m afraid that it’s just too different from the other images and that it would be distracting rather than helpful. I’ve gotten a couple opinions on it so far, and people seem to like it, but I’m not entirely convinced. I’ll ask when I have class tomorrow morning (today?). I never quite know how far to go with things that could be seen as flaws. Dust and scratches on negatives when printing B&W or color can be interesting when used in the right application, but when does it become too much? When is it cliche?

The last image, of the truck, needs to be printed a lot darker. It was really strange when I was developing this image because all of the detail just washed away. I don’t know if it was an error on my part, in the developing, or if it’s just something about the negative that can’t be helped. Again, I’m going back and forth on this image too, because I like the slightly faded quality. Part of me just wants to print it darker to see what it would look like if I actually had a good print of it. At least then I’d be able to choose whether or not I wanted it to be faded as opposed to just picking the faded one because it’s the only one I have.

All of these Americana images are going to be shown inconjunction with the collage prints that I’m making about my family. I might arrange them in dyptichs, but there wouldn’t be significant connections between the two images, so I don’t know how relavant it would be. This project is turning out to be a lot more personal than I imagined. I don’t have a problem with putting myself out there, but since I’m going to use all of these images in my solo show (a show that my parents have the potential to see), I don’t know if my parents would be bothered by it. …I can’t really fathom why they would, but I don’t want to step on any toes or anything of the sort. I’m going to persist with it because it’s important to me.