This photograph belongs to Harry Nankin’s series Cathexis (1993), which is typical of the artist’s practice in that it was created without the use of a camera. Rather than use a camera to photograph the world, Nankin prefers to use simple, direct contact techniques to record traces of nature. While Nankin often produces his works outdoors in the natural environment, this series was created in a darkened studio setting. Nankin physically placed his subjects on photographic paper then exposed the paper to the light of a torch before processing the image in the darkroom. The series incorporated skeletons of common Australian animals and a human being, attempting to connect them through shared shapes and forms. Nankin sees these works as two-dimensional records of the interiors of three-dimensional objects, similar to a cross-section or an x-ray.
(2018)
Gelatin silver prints are black-and-white photographic prints that have been created using papers coated with an emulsion of gelatin and light-sensitive silver salts. After the papers are briefly exposed to light (usually through a negative), a chemical developer renders the latent image as reduced silver, which is then fixed and washed. This technique was first introduced in the 1870s and is still used today. Most twentieth-century black-and-white photographs are gelatin silver prints. They are known for being highly detailed and sharply defined prints with a distinguishable smooth, even image surface.
