Artist statement: Norman Bryson, author of Looking at the overlooked (1990), has observed that the still life has been ‘systematically downgraded by the defenders of the higher painting genres who, in their theoretical work, provided the rationale for the professional hierarchy of the genres, with history painting, the exclusive male genre at its apex.’
Dishes, the photograph of a scene on the sink, draws directly from the modest genre of still life, pointing to the issue of the invisibility of domestic labour. Contained in this balancing act, a composition of domestic clutter, is the possibility of an intimate narrative and contemporary portrait of a family.
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Chromogenic prints are printed on paper that has at least three emulsion layers containing invisible dyes and silver salts. Each emulsion layer is sensitive to a different primary colour of light (red, green or blue). The development process converts the hidden dyes to visible colour depending on the amount of light it was exposed to. This type of paper is commonly used to print from colour negatives or digital files to produce a full-colour image. It can also be used to print black-and-white images, giving softer grain and less contrast than gelatin silver prints. Commonly known as c-type prints, chromogenic processing was developed in the 1940s and widely used for colour printing, including for domestic snapshots. While recent years have seen this process accompanied by ink-jet and digital printing technologies, chromogenic printing still remains in use to this day.
