Bogong High Plains, Alpine National Park (4417/1)2020
Artist statement: My recent photographic series Alpine bogs and associated fens (2020), depicts an ecologically endangered bog, heath and fen system located within the Victorian High Plains. I was particularly drawn to the analogy this ecosystem shares with darkroom photography. For example, both share a sensitivity to light, require water flow for existence, offer acidic and alkaline processing and most importantly, both are susceptible to change over time; the greatest change perhaps being the constant threat of their untimely demise. This photograph captures snow falling in late Spring of 2019. A month later fires were burning just over the ridge, threatening to wipe out great swathes of this fragile landscape.
www.awilliams.com.au
thecommercialgallery.com
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.
