Michael Riley is a key figure in the history of Indigenous photography. Along with several other prominent Indigenous artists, he helped establish the Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Co-op in Sydney in 1987. Riley’s photographic practice traversed various genres, including portraiture, social documentary, photo-collage and conceptual photography. Across all these genres, Riley demonstrated a particular interest in the identity and experiences of Indigenous people in Australia in a post-colonial context. ‘Spirit cloud’ prefigures Riley’s celebrated Cloud series and highlights his interest in spirituality. For this work, Riley looked up at the sky at sunset, creating a vertical triptych that aims to represent the spiritual being, Baiame, a celestial figure known by Wiradjuri peoples as the creator god. Riley’s use of silver dye bleach printing, which is characterised by colour saturation and a shimmering surface, contributes to the unreal and otherworldly effect of this work.
(2023)
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).
