IC w13 From the start

Now just before submitting my work in progress portfolio and the start of the FMP, it is time for an overview. Where am I from, what have I been doing this one and a half year?

During random experimentation in Photoshop, I am a Certified Expert and can regularly lose myself in a day just trying all kinds of things by using function improperly. This resulted in three results that really appealed to me and with which I wanted to continue. Here you see one of the images that triggered me.

At about the same time, all the climate reports in the media made me curious about what was really going on. Living below sea level, the realisation that the Netherlands can disappear for 2/3 if the dikes break is breathtaking.

The technique whereby, based on the contrast in the photo, I executed 3D objects on photos made in places that, according to expectations, would no longer exist 100 years later, resulted in the first series of photos. (2 of them were exhibited in Greece during a photo festival)

This project was expanded during the second block. I got to know more about my own country and went looking for special places. But besides that I had a second project based on white flowers. White the color that represents innocence.

In this flower project I was able to express my ever-present urge to experiment and to create images by hand. That meant that I went out with a hand scanner, turned the lens over to take macro photos, converted the pixels into sound and took pictures with the 4x5' camera. I made Salt prints, cyanotypes and printed photos direct on leaves of trees. Did experiments with printing and this resulted in a series of 5 hand-bound unique booklets.

During the 3rd block I had to do more research on the climate changes and at the same time I had the problem that my meniscus was torn and this greatly limited my radius of action. During lessons at university I learned about the importance of clouds and everything came together. Clouds traveled to me and it was therefore possible to continue shooting, before and after surgery on my knee.

Of course I have experimented again. scientists research how to make clouds yourself. Clouds cool the earth and are moving towards the poles and I also found out (in block 4) that they also disappear completely when the CO2 content increases. So I tried to make clouds in the darkroom myself. I also explored the possibilities of augmented reality by "projecting" clouds in space. (Small video recordings).

This fourth block I continued with the clouds. Therefore no problems when we had to stay inside by Covid-19. The project has naturally evolved and topographic maps and 3D surf maps have been added. I'm thinking of bringing them together in an alternative cloud atlas. At the moment I am making tests with a 3D printer and I have made a 3D space to visualize what that might look like. I photographed cauliflower analog 4x5 "because it reminded me of clouds and I made graphic prints where clouds were my inspiration. The biggest challenge this time was reducing the massive amount of over 100 images to a WIp of 20.

In my entire process you see a recurrence of making ordinary work and experiments in images and techniques. Usually it takes a little alternating time. They influence each other. The work appears intuitively as a matter of course, and that also applies to the ways in which it evolves. Even though there are of course times when I fail and I have to struggle more to get the desired result. I sometimes work intuitively, then react to results or think of something in advance that I will try out if it works. Each block added new elements and the direction in which the work grew became slightly different. Seeing it all together gives a good idea of my way of working.

The subject of nature, climate change and the influence of clouds within it is a subject that I now think can be an inexhaustible source of inspiration for me, but only time will show if I am right.