green girl

This image started with a 4"x5" negative, which is pretty much the only thing about it that actually relates to photography. I scraped practically all the emulsion off the negative. The remaining bits of emulsion are the dark areas on the right and bottom edges, and of course the girl's face.

Next, I scanned the negative on a flatbed scanner with a green washcloth on top of it. That's where the chain-link pattern comes from. I increased the brightness and contrast in Photoshop, and there you have it.

I've always enjoyed using series of destructive methods just to see what happens. A lot of my favorite work is the result of ripping, scratching, burning, soaking, crushing, or otherwise ruining a perfectly good negative or print, and then finding ways to build something new out of it. Or sometimes it's just fine all messed up and that's the end of it.

For the next day or two I'll be posting some images that use a similar method to the green girl, but were made entirely in the darkroom.