Thursday, October 8, 2009

Experiments.

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This looks like a big mess, doesn't it? Well, at the moment, it sort of is. I have all of these photos laid out on newspaper drying on my kitchen table and on top of the refrigerator (let's hope my roommate doesn't hate me when she gets home).

Over the summer, M's air conditioner sprung a leak or something like that, causing water to drip onto some of his things, including a box of photos. He didn't realize this immediately, and by the time he did, the photos were wet and sticking together. When he began peeling them apart so they could dry, the coolest thing happened -- the colors separated into reds and blues, and images were "stuck" to the backs of other photos. I thought this looked really neat, and wanted to try replicating the effect.

Weeks later, I finally got around to digging through some old photos of mine, and made a pile of duplicates and ones that I didn't like very much. I put them in a large cooking pot and covered them with water. For a couple of days, nothing happened. They were just sitting in the water, not sticking together or doing anything interesting. I took them out, wrapped the pile in a paper towel, and put them back in water. I left them there for 4-5(?) days, checking on them every day for progress, and took them out to dry today, after the water had completely evaporated and the paper towel turned purple. Images didn't really transfer to the backs of other photos (with the exception of two), and instead of reds and blues, I have mostly yellows and purples, but I think this is because most of the photos were black and white. I'll be sure to scan some once they dry out so you can see the detail!

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3 comments:

Crystal said...

Excellent idea! I love it!

Anonymous said...

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Cassandra said...

No apology necessary, thank you! I love this.