Moon through a dirty window, II
The motivation behind the work is to present an alternative approach to modern astrophotography. The goal is to get away from producing pixel perfect images in Photoshop which ultimately look identical to any other astrophotographer’s work of the same subject. Taking the initially digitally captured image and applying various traditional photographic techniques allows for the creation of unique works of art with a strong elemental of chance influencing their final style.
The work is produced using a hybrid approach, involving digital capture through a telescope, normal B&W darkroom processing and finally chemigram inspired techniques.
A digital camera connected to a telescope captures the master image of the moon, from which a digital negative is made. This is contact printed onto a sheet of photographic paper under a darkroom enlarger. The paper is soaked in a washing soda solution and sprinkled with instant coffee granules and vitamin-c powder, the raw ingredients of caffenol developer. This is left to work for a while, causing semi-random selective development of the latent image. The paper is washed and then put through a regular B&W dev, stop & fix process to reveal the final image.