Justine Varga makes photographs using cameraless and analogue processes. ‘Ripe’ (2016) forms part of her series Memoire, which the artist created by working directly with pieces of film, bringing them into contact with her environment or inscribing them with markings. To create ‘Ripe’, Varga tied a piece of unexposed film to a tree branch, allowing it to be left outside and exposed to the elements. The piece of film remained in place for over a month before a child found it by chance and plucked it from the tree. Although picked prematurely, Varga considered the work to now be ‘ripe’ and ready for processing. Varga’s pieces of film are printed by hand in the darkroom through a process that relies on light and chemistry to reveal fields of colour and line on large sheets of photographic paper. Instead of representing the external world as it is seen, Varga’s photographs record time and daily experience as well as the intimate and tactile processes of their creation.
(2018)
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.
