Beverley Thomas Critical Research Journal for Falmouth University MA Photography
This blog is being made as part of an accredited educational programme.
(Week 22) 27/10/2020
“The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” – Orson Wells
Emulsion Lifts
Noam Kroll, a film maker wrote in his blog “Coming up with a new idea or refining an existing idea to get it ready to be fleshed out into a full screenplay is no easy task,” Same could be said with regard to photography. Being a creative, I have found certain limitations such as lack of correct equipment restricting my next project, then again, this limitation has made me focus on alternative ways.
Orson Welles has been famously quoted as saying ‘The enemy of art is the absence of limitations’, and I feel this sentiment to be true. Perhaps if I had unlimited time and money, it would make me crazy and not allow me to be creative. Therefore, limitations and constraints are a good thing.
This brings me to experiment with emulsion lifts. I had originally scheduled to do these emulsion lifts in week 10. Needless to say, it’s now week 22 and I am finally getting round too experimenting with images. An emulsion lift or emulsion/polaroid transfer is when the emulsion layer is delicately removed from a sheet of film or photograph and then carefully transferred to a different surface.
There is a great deal of information about polaroid transfers available online, however, not much with regard to using transparent vinyl, which was my original intent. Therefore, I have decided to order a Polaroid Lab.
Polaroid Lab review
Take pictures, No make pictures. That’s what the Polaroid Lab advertises. What looks like a clever device and will enable me to print directly from my smart phone. Having watched some online reviews, I decided to make a purchase. Indeed, the film is not cheap, because of the cost involved, I know I will be using it sparingly.
I’ve always thought these lifts would be hard to do. However, was surprised at how easy and fun it was, so I thought I’d put together a little step by step guide to making emulsion lifts!
PREPARATION
- A fully developed Polaroid Print – I am using Polaroid i-Type or Originals 600 film.
- Two trays – one with hot water, the other with cold water
- Watercolour paper
- Scissors
- Soft Brush
Step 1:
Using a dedicated App and my iPhone, I place the image onto the Polaroid Lab to create the polaroid (Fig 1) and after gathering supplies together, I proceeded to cut off the white border of the polaroid print.
Step 2:
Then it was important to gently pull the image apart and remove it from the plastic black cover from the emulsion.
Step 3:
In order to remove the image from the front plastic cover. This required soaking the image in hot water (Fig 2). I found the hotter the water, the faster the emulsion was released.
Step 4:
Once the image was separated from the front cover, I then placed a piece of water colour paper into cold water and transferred the emulsion lift into the cold water, ready to be secured to the paper surface. Although the emulsion was not as delicate as one would think, I was very careful to avoid it tearing.
Step 5:
Previously I had seen a series called ‘Liquid Dress’ on my Instagram feed. What I gained from looking at these images was that I too could create similar, making reference to the idea for clothing apparel Link.
Once I decided on how I intended my images to look, I proceeded to work, just as a painter would. However, working with this medium almost dictated the way the dress shapes would fall. It was easy to move the emulsion across the paper when it was wet, when I removed it from the tray (fig 3), I had a little time to add some folds and wrinkles to the images using a wet brush.
However, after the image had dried (fig 4) everything that I had done to the image remained and no more work would be done to rectify any minor areas. Fortunately, I did not need to amend any part.
The results
I really enjoyed this process. Yes, it was time consuming and yes, I wanted to get it right first time otherwise I felt it would not be cost effective. I am really pleased with the results (Fig 5). Using my lumen print designs I printed them directly from my phone onto the Polaroid Lab. At first, I thought the colours were going to be more saturated than I would have liked. So, I placed them in a darkened location to further develop for an hour.
Inspecting them again, I was pleasantly surprised and although the colour match was not exactly correct due to the nature of the polaroid film (Fig 2), this does not matter for what I was creating. I have been able to transform them into dress designs using a polaroid emulsion lift technique. What was interesting, it was my first time and not really knowing what to expect, I decided to let the emulsion dictate where it wanted to go, this then allowed me to use the shape and manipulate the medium into a form of a dress.
Upon closer inspection (fig 4) of the dried image, I can see the emulsion lends itself nicely to replicate the creases that are emulated within the soft delicate fabric. These lumens are ideally designed to fit the female body and the shapes are born from the manipulating the emulsion. I could perform the same type of technique to create a series of scarves. Although, I prefer to show them as dresses and I really like the way they fell into place.
These eight images (fig 5) are the results and remind me, when I was a child and how I would create Sindy doll fashion accessories. I would spend hours building and creating her house with my father’s help and use recycled materials. In particular, things such as cardboard and fabrics to build furniture and soft furnishings. This endless play enabled my creativity to develop and the limitation of money allowed my art to grow. On the contrary, I see this new experimental work interconnecting with other aspects of my practice, whilst the landscape flows throughout, the shapes are reminiscent of the prom/evening dress and the wedding gown designs.
As I mentioned before, my father is really poorly, this week we have had to face the fact he has not eaten for two weeks and make important decisions regarding his future. I will need to reschedule my meeting tomorrow with Wendy, simply because I feel that I have not made enough progress on my CRoP to discuss with her. During this time, it is important to realise that my father’s influence has been constantly on my mind and I do not believe that my creative inquisitive mind would exist without his initial input growing up. On my walk, my journey, he has taught me many things and how to use my creativity wisely and not set myself any limitations.
Reference:
KELTER. Available at https://www.kelterphotography.com [accessed 27/10/20]
KROLL, N. Available at https://noamkroll.com/about-noam/ [accessed 19/10/20]
Beverley Thomas 