Martin Czarnecki

I published an eBook (free of charge) on this topic in the Apple® iBookstore https://itunes.apple.com/book/horisonten/id696861273 and at blurb http://store.blurb.com/ebooks/429348-horisonten where also a print-on-demand-book is available.

HORISONTEN

Martin Czarnecki 

In this series I have put together photos of my surroundings over a period of 2 1/2 years. All photos were taken with a Polaroid SX-70 camera using the instant film by Impossible, which has been produced again since 2009. For the emulsion lift process, I have separated the layer containing the image from the film and applied this onto a piece of paper.

This technique produces a picturesque, almost watercolour effect. Precisely drawn structures are reproduced with a blurred effect. From a somewhat greater distance photographed people appear as figures and "extras", because individuals cannot be identified. The screen resolution is significantly cruder than the human eye.  It is precisely this quality, however, which gives many photographs a fundamental quintessence and leaves room for interpretation and imagination.

The photos have not only been created using the same technique, but they share a common content. This is the banal situations of everyday life. If the common photography technique of today, with its realistic and richly detailed representation, had been used, the photographs would be boring and unappealing. The emulsion lift process, however, minimises the "flood of details" like a filter, creating a perception which deviates from our usual visual perspective.

For me the instant photo encompasses the magic of the early years of photography seen in daguerreotypes or the photographs of Oskar Barnack with the first Leicas.

Things couldn't be more analogue than this!

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