Alternative Processes
Alumni, Gil Goodrow has had a lifelong passion for photography. He says, “I have been creating images for most of my life. As a child, my parents always had a still – or movie – camera at family gatherings or on vacations. I will never forget the clicking sounds of the 8mm (yes … film) movie camera & projector, or looking at the cool black & white photographs with the white borders.”
Goodrow received his Associate in Applied Sciences degree in Portrait/Fine Art Photography from Lansing Community College, which led him further to attain a BFA in Visual Communication/Photography from the University of Michigan-Flint in 2013. As owner of Northlight Studio, which concentrates on senior pictures and wedding photography, Goodrow’s love for the fine art side of photography is another aspect of his career in which he explores man-made & natural textures, Fabricscapes, Polaroid manipulations, portrait & figure themes, as well as alternative processes.
One alternative process called, Lumen Printing is described by Jill Enfield as, “Lumen prints are made by taking sheets of unexposed black-and-white photo paper and placing objects or negatives on top as if you were going to make a photogram, but instead of using an enlarger you take the paper out into the sun. The results will vary due to exposure times, density of photogram or negative, quality of light and, most importantly, the type of paper. Each paper will have a different color, depending on whether it was old or new, fiber or resin, and the manufacturer. According to an article by Jerry Burchfield (on www.freestylebiz.com), exposures can vary from half an hour to days and sometimes even months.”
This attraction to alternative processes is a lure to many photographers, many of whom have stocks of supplies now that the majority of photography has transitioned into more digital processes. ”It is a technique that puts you in the hands of chance and the fact that every image will be unique. So many factors affect the final image like air humidity, uv-factor, the subject’s humidity, temperature etc.” says writer and photographer, Sarah Lycksten. Old, unprocessed photographic paper is still a treasure trove for the fine art photographer interested in creating new and extremely unique imagery.
Gil Goodrow’s exploration into this technique can be seen in an upcoming juried exhibition, “lumen,” March 11 to May 1, 2016 at the A. Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas, in the Nugent Avenue Arts District.
See more photographic work by Gilford A. Goodrow: gilgart.com gilgoodrow.com
