Robyn Stacey began working with natural history collections in 2000 and her series The collector’s nature is one of a number of series she has produced as a result. The collector’s nature consists of 12 digitally constructed photographic montages showing specimens from the collections of the Macleay Museum in Sydney, the Herbarium at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens as well as the National Herbarium of the Netherlands. Stacey worked with these collections, which are not usually accessible to the public, in order to bring the contents of these archives to life through photography. ‘Fruit and sky’ shows the surreal juxtaposition of an exotic banana flower, a butterfly, a caterpillar and a spider in front of a clouded sky. The creation of this series allowed Stacey to explore the history of collecting as well as the relationships between science, nature, mythology, cultural identity and photography.
(2016)
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.
