Testnegativ (2015)

Testnegativ is a collection of photographic test negatives, specialized tools that were designed in the analog era to convey optical information to the darkroom technician. Left behind by digital technology, they remain as the artifacts, art objects, and documents of a fascinating environment shaped and perfected by over 100 years of innovation.

For years I had pinned to the wall beside my enlarger a print of a Kodak test negative; “Focus” it simply read. Meant initially to aid the photographer in achieving peak optical sharpness (and other technical aspects), the negatives are graphically intriguing beyond this merely functional purpose. Line pairs, Siemens stars, and other such graphic tools converge in swirling, hatched, and gridded forms. Like anything that is truly beautiful, there is something about them that made me sad. I recognized that they were part of a crumbling empire, a photographic peak which happened before my time. A time when the photographer was a skilled craftsman, chemist, and artist. They are a visual representation of a wealth of knowledge that has been made obsolete.

This work is a tribute to craftsmanship, good design, the analog era and the collecting impulse. These negatives were not meant to be seen outside of the darkroom – often they were simply projected onto the easel and never printed. By making enlargements, I am making these tools into artworks that I feel celebrate and perpetuate the craftsmanship of the darkroom.

In 2015, I printed some of this collection for an exhibition at Gallery 44 in Toronto, Canada.