2022–present
Platinum Prints
Various sizes
Edition of 2 + 1AP
Hiding on the backs of some long-forgotten photographs are “ghost” images, accidental traces of other pictures left pressed up against the surface. Often barely visible but on occasion startlingly clear, these apparitions are the result of a chemical reaction caused by platinum photographs. Under certain conditions — the right platinum print stacked with the right paper for decades — a mirror image will appear. With each imprint, I like to imagine that the medium itself issues a reminder that photography has power beyond our control.
I was amazed to stumble upon this new type of picture, and have now spent several years ghost hunting. As a conceptual gesture, I rephotograph and reanimate them as hand-coated platinum prints. This process returns the portraits to their original material and offers them yet another chance to reproduce. I am drawn to their mysterious qualities — where the ghosts happen to land on the page, how they merge with graphics and text, the layering of multiple “exposures” — and I am captivated by the idea that, while no one is looking, the photographs are reproducing themselves.
