In the past few months, I have spend a large part of my time at work going through old archival slides, photos, and documents. Scanning them, naming them, organizing them. Learning the people, the history, all those who came before and who still are, after all this time, still there. This work taught me a lot of things: new skills, new information, and a new appreciation for documentation and how important that work is. I decided to try my hand at creating my own archival photo, just like the ones I've been working with, using a photo of this rhino that I took during my time there. I tried to match some of the damage from the background I found on the Library of Congress to the damage I added to the image using various brushes. As well as that scratch I took from a photo on the Library of Congress, I tone matched it and tried to make it blend as much into the original photo as possible.
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The digital artwork created by Cassie Eberle demonstrates a photograph of a rhino within the center of a board. The rhino is photographed in a wildlife setting, showing an up-close full body image, almost as if the rhino is walking towards you. The image is then pinned up onto a faded board. The pins are these older looking pins, which are long and roll up, almost twisted into spirals, towards the end of the pin. On the board there are faded words and numbers, like someone was writing notes and making measurements about the photograph. The image is transformed into an older black and white image, with some yellow (warmed) undertones.
ReplyDeleteBased on the writing description, the digital artwork is meant to symbolize or demonstrate an archival photo, similar to one you can find in old archives and museums. To help display this concept, Cassie uses the board found within the Library of Congress. There are the pins pinning up the image, making it seem like it is being placed up to be examined. There are also faded marks that further create the idea that people or someone is taking notes. Most of the treatment on the digital work is just added to create the idea of a Wet-Plate Collodion, adding dots and scratches to further create an older appearance. However, I won’t say that the treatment created any type of metaphorical meaning.
Through the content and the technique, the evaluation and concept I interpreted was more of an environmental concept. The choice of using a rhino for the center photograph makes me think of endangered animals, making the archive seem like they are studying endangered animals or even the idea of the animals already being extinct. With the mix to the idea “old is new again” and rhinos being an endangered animal, it can tie to a concept of the question, what if these animals were already extinct?
Most of the textures do take place to help the image blend into the Library of Congress, which leads to the scratches and dots around the image. However, since the concept does involve an image within an image, which if there were two wet-plates. The image of the rhino could have its own texture and scratches, making it seem a little more different, as if it has its own damage. In addition, tying back to the interpretation of endangered animals, there can be a crack or metaphorical tear which symbolizes the death of the animal. In addition to the texture added, having the writing within the board helped make the concept of archival more known, however, making the writing more readable can help add more of a concept on what is being seen with the image of the rhino.
The concept shown within the digital artwork helps convey the idea of old archives, which can be seen through the old image of a rhino being pinned up. However, there can be a deeper concept within the archives. What is being archived, why is the image of the rhino important? Creating a deep message can make the marks more meaningful, and can make the viewer understand more of the concept.