Rydalmere vertical III1997
Anne Ferran’s Rydalmere vertical is a series of photographs that document an installation of colonial-style headdresses set in a nineteenth-century orphanage on the Parramatta River at Rydalmere. The artist manufactured and installed the headdresses for the purpose of taking these photographs. The six ‘soft caps’ sit on a cloth-covered plinth and turn to face a different cardinal point of the compass, as if to situate the often ignored history of colonial orphanages on the map.
The Rydalmere vertical series marks an important point in Ferran’s career, when she began to document historic sites and heritage collections. The full series contains four photographs, covering the four cardinal points.
(2014)
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.
