"Cascade" work in progress

I decided to tentatively name this piece "Cascade" and it's possibly #1 of the series done in a similar technique and concept. 

There are 2 panes of glass placed on top of the other: the top layer has the photographic image printed on the reverse side, then the second layer beneath has gold leafing on the front side. Behind these 2 panes of glass, there is an oxidized and primed steel plate that adds an extra texture to the piece from behind. So there are total 3 layers. This assemblage will be housed in a wooden frame I am constructing. This image was captured via a bed scanner and because of the rich texture of the gold leafing, the fine detail of the facial features seem obscured. However, the actual photograph is much more detailed when you get up close, and also the gold leaf changes its color and texture depending on your viewing angles and whatever it is reflecting that happens to be near by. I am not completely satisfied with this scanned image because of the way the face looks. This picture just doesn't do justice. I will try to document this in a different method that is more accurate somehow...

Here is another shot of this piece from a different camera angle and different lighting. You can clearly see the color and texture of gold leaf look completely different from the scanned version's.

Diazotype workshop

My Colleague Helen Hoffelt and I participated in one of the workshops during FotoFocus events in Cincinnati last month. It was a workshop on Diazotype conducted by Eric William Carroll and took place at Glen Helen Ecology Institute of Antioch college in Yellow Springs, OH. Helen and I had so much fun learning this process and experimenting with it. During the break we were given a little tour of the wonderful campus and an exhibit of Eric's work.

Below are some of the prints I made from this workshop.

Gum printing

For the past few weeks, I have been experimenting with single color gum bichromate printing inspired by Matthew Brandt's work currently on display at Columbus Museum of Art. I am planning on teaching the process to my students in a few days. So far I have tried iron oxide, freeze-dried coffee, powdered green tea and paprika as pigments to print my images with. I am quite pleased with the results I got from iron oxide and pleasantly surprised by the subtle yet beautiful tonality I got from paprika. I am going to post a few more on my alternative photography portfolio page, but the below are what I got so far. This printing process is primitive but fun because it gives you so much freedom and room for experimentation. I think my students will enjoy this process.