This work is from Brook Andrew’s series Kalar midday. It shows a nude Aboriginal woman standing at the foot of a tree at night. The title of this series refers to the Kalare (renamed Lachlan River in 1815), which is one of the three river systems that demarcate the Wiradjuri tribal lands of Andrew’s mother’s family. The figures in this series are pictured lurking in the half-light of the moon, but the title suggests that they are mythical creatures that haunt the shadows of our waking lives. In this series, along with other work produced at the time, Andrew’s stated ambition was ‘to remove the idea of an ugly race’ and create seductive images of Aboriginal bodies in a ‘landscape stripped of history and violence’. Andrew has accentuated the seductive quality of these images by using the silver dye bleach printing process, which produces photographs that have a glossy surface and deep black tones.
(2016)
A silver dye bleach print is a subtractive positive-to-positive colour photographic process used for the reproduction of colour film transparencies on photographic paper. The prints are made using a triacetate, polyester or resin coated paper support coated with layers of azo (synthetic) dyes mixed with light sensitive silver gelatine emulsion, which are selectively bleached out during the development process. Silver dye bleach prints are characterised by their image clarity, colour saturation and stability. The most commercially successful silver dye bleach product was Ilfochrome (which was also commonly known as Cibachrome).
