out on the sea, we’d be forgiven
These images are RA-4 interpretations of negatives exposed to the light of the aurora borealis over the Deer Isle Bridge on the coast of Maine. Color prints were made with the negatives and then scanned, aligned, stacked, and adjusted repeatedly to maximize the dynamic range of both print and negative.
visions of light I; this is the base ra4 scan I was working from
visions of light ii; a high contrast take on an ra4 scan
visions of light iii; aggressive post processing of a scanned ra4 print
the ferryman waits to take you to the great beyond; do you accept his invitation?
palatial perception; panoramically assembled strips of film with adjacent images remaining in the printing field, giving chronological context to the set together
In terms of panoramic theory, this image set revealed something fundamental about how memory maps onto spherical space. Using a 6x7 film holder with 6x4.5 images created not just beautiful juxtapositions of auroral features and landscape elements, but opened up a way of understanding how multiple perspectives combine into a larger spherical projection. Each frame becomes a piece of curved memory, contributing to a whole that more closely mirrors how consciousness perceives space, while the overlapping frames create redundant information that, when properly stacked, yields higher effective resolution and dynamic range than any single capture could achieve.
The RA-4 printing process proved crucial here - not just for bringing out low contrast images from C41 cross-processed ECN-2 negatives, but for creating multiple interpretations of the same negative that could later be stacked and blended. Each slight variation in filtration and exposure created its own truth about the captured light, while the overlapping frames, when mapped onto a curved projection surface, fundamentally changed the nature of the final image. Unlike a single frame captured on a flat image plane, these panoramas build themselves through accumulation and overlap of rich visual information on the negatives, each frame contributing its own perspective to a more complete vision.
My workflow, undeniably hybridized between analog and digital processes, takes advantage of both worlds: the organic richness of analog color printing and the precise control of digital blending and stacking. Working on the scans of the prints isn't just post-processing - it's part of a larger philosophical approach to image-making that understands how multiple perspectives, multiple processes, and multiple moments of seeing can combine to create something truer than any single capture could achieve. Through careful attention to spherical geometry and the deliberate accumulation and blending of multiple perspectives, we can create images that not only show us what was there, but how it felt to be there, seeing it.