Thursday 12 March 2020

Watch the nettles, Audrey

For once the title bears no relevance to the print - it's a phrase I heard the other night on some local TV programme about farming life in County Tyrone and it had me in stitches.

Anyway, today's offering is from that prison hospital place in Bergamo.  Bear in mind there was no commentary about the place so we were left to guess what it was all about.  This chair was just sitting in one of the rooms and it was very strange.  It looked like the genuine article and I'm guessing it was used for electro convulsive therapy for patients who had some sort of mental disorder.  But as I say, I'm only guessing...

Take a seat, sir.  Bergamo prison hospital, 2019

This was printed on Ilford Warmtone fibre paper and initially was a pretty poor print.  I tried to resurrect it by bleaching it back in cupric sulphate solution then using hot lith developer (in daylight - one of the advantages of this technique).  This isn't a paper you normally associate with lith but this bleach and redevelopment does produce some interesting lith-like colours.

4 comments:

  1. Looks straight out of the 1930s.

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    1. Indeed, Jim - it was a rare looking thing. Quite disturbing to think of it being used.

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  2. Wow, that's great. Your print really brought out the creepiness of that chair.

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    1. Cheers Marcus. It's not the punchiest of prints, but then again they don't all have to be. I was quite happy with the way it turned out - kind of creepy, as you say.

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