Artist statement: Created in the Blue Mountains around Katoomba, All that is solid melts into air endeavours to capture a visual poetics of place and explores the communion of people with the landscape. Combining landscapes inspired by nineteenth century Romanticism with portraits of strangers encountered in the street or in the bush, the series investigates notions of the Australian sublime as evidenced in films like Picnic at Hanging Rock. These images are not a documentary or journalistic account, but an ambiguous blending of impression and fact. This portrait of Ira was taken in August 2013, before the devastating fires that ravaged the region. The body of the missing bush-walker, Gary Tweddle, would not be discovered for another three weeks.
Also known as Giclee prints or bubble-jet prints, pigment ink-jet prints are generated by computer printers from digital or scanned files using dye-based or pigment-based inks. A series of nozzles spray tiny droplets of ink onto the paper surface in a precise pattern that corresponds to the digital image file. In dye-based prints the ink soaks into the paper, whereas in pigment-based prints the ink rests and dries on top of the paper surface.
Whilst the term is broad, pigment ink-jet prints have come to be associated with prints produced on fine art papers. They are the most versatile and archival method of printing available to photographers today. A wide variety of material on which an image can be printed with such inks are available, including various textures and finishes such as matte photo paper, watercolour paper, cotton canvas or pre-coated canvas.
