Silver Traces is an ongoing series of cameraless images inspired by 19th-century photography, science, and botanical artists. 

Silver traces is an ongoing series of cameraless images inspired by 19th century photography, science and botanical artists. 

The analogue photographs from Silver traces are a visual repository for natural matter collected, propagated and preserved. Growing in cracks of concrete, washed ashore by waves or rooting underground: flowers, weeds, plants, kelps and ferns that might easily have gone unnoticed are collected from gardens, bushlands, suburban verges and beaches to be cut, preserved, grown then pressed to the surface of the photograph for exposure. The result is a silver trace: the visual absence of the thing that once touched the paper.

These orchestrated compositions do not aim to create a scientific facsimile, or to render perfectly the photographic process, but provide a view of the specimens through the touch of nature. A latent impression is made in the silver gelatin emulsion through the action of light, time and chemistry. The specimens appear at their original size and the depth of tones reflect their translucency. The closer their contact with the paper surface, the sharper and more defined the final forms. Interplay of light and shadow details, the positive and negative, is photographic but not in the usual way. 

Alchemy in experimentation with traditional b&w photography chemistry and the rapid response of resin coated photographic papers, lends itself to darkroom exploration and achieving the variety of results evident in the prints. The images are labour intensive to compose, expose, variously process, re-expose and wash. Just like the experimental and scientific beginnings of the medium, outcomes at each stage of this process can be unpredictable but a method for achieving particular results emerges. This photographic method simultaneously evokes the recognisable and undetected qualities of the subject while also abstracting and highlighting the invisible. The images conjure a nostalgic or primitive use of photographic medium and draw on its ability to realistically render elements from the organisms. While the unique and painterly backgrounds are akin to the artists brushstrokes

Exploring and developing this method of photography has captivated and motivated me to engage with my surroundings, the immediacy of the natural environment and reflect on the beginnings of print photography.