Scanned image, 40" x 24.2" ca. @300ppi (id#1001)
Scanned image, 31.9" x 31.6" ca. @300ppi (id#1002)
Most of the images in this group, being made from artificial materials or objects, tend to be highly regular. This one displays instead an irregularity more akin to what one usually finds in nature (e.g., the veining of certain types of stone), the subject having been made by an industrial process that manages to incorporate some of nature's unpredictability in the way the materials are made to flow together
Scanned image, 20.7" x 20.3" ca. @300ppi (id#1003)
Like nearly all the works in this group this image is essentially unmanipulated.
Scanned image, 24" x 23.8" ca. @300ppi (id#1004)
The specifics on size and definition are offered in order to underline the image quality, which I try to maintain at the highest possible level - that is, 300 pixels per inch. Many artists will print at 150ppi or even 100ppi just to make a print that is two or three times bigger, but always with a sacrifice in quality.
Scanned image, 32.1" x 18.4" ca. @300ppi (id#1005)
Image created with a flat-bed scanner, using as a subject an ink-jet print made by printing a test pattern many times on the same sheet of paper.
Scanned image, 20.4" x 16.1" ca. @300ppi (id#1006)
Since with this kind of scanner one can make a high-quality scan at 1200 ppi, which (converted to 300ppi for printing) gives a 4x enlargement, most of these works are 400% of the size of their sources. The original of this image, for example, was about 5"x4".
Scanned and elaborated image, 5.9" x 5.9" ca. @300ppi (id#927)
Base image created with a flat-bed scanner, then subjected to perfectly regular deformations. (One of the very few works here manipulated in such a way.)
Original scan is of a sheet of graph paper, whose colors have been preserved.
Other titles for this image have come to mind, such as "Descartes' Vertigo".
Scanned image, 35.1" x 27.5" ca. @300ppi (id#1008)
This material is fabricated in a way that mimics the structure of certain things found in nature which combine highly regular patterns (when seen as a whole) with slight, random irregularities seen locally.
Scanned image, 35.1" x 27.5" ca. @300ppi (id#1009)
Although very like the preceding image, it is of a similar material with a coarser pattern.
Almost like fractals, these materials tend to look the same at any degree of enlargement. The pattern resembles that of static electricity.
Scanned image, 26.9" x 32.9" ca. @300pi (id#1010)
In this work, as in several others in this group, the whole image verges on invisibility (especially on the web). For this reason details are shown, and sometimes no overall views, in which there would be little or nothing to see.
Scanned image, 26.9" x 32.9" ca. @300ppi overall, this detail 9" x 12" ca. (id#1010)
In this work, as in several others in this group, the whole image verges on invisibility (especially on the web). For this reason only details are shown, and no overall views, in which there would be little or nothing to see.
Scanned image, 39" x 27.6" ca. @300ppi overall, this detail 6.2" x 4.6" ca. (id#1011)
The subject is a surface of multipigmented, 100% cotton rag paper pulp made by hand as part of an older project of mine involving the use of paper pulp.
Scanned image, 20.1" x 20.2" ca. @300ppi (id#1012)
The subject is the randomly acid-etched surface of a zinc plate I made while working with created textures in various printmaking media.
Years ago, like many a bored and distracted junior high school student, I passed a considerable amount of time in class absent-mindedly filling in the white spaces of the cover of my "Universal" composition book with my ball-point. The speckled cardboard seemed like a great black sea with hundreds of small white islands, all different, a kind of Milky Way.
Scanned image, 29" x 26" ca. @300ppi overall, this portion 26" x 20" ca. (id#1013)
The subject is a sheet of nori, the seaweed used for sushi.
Scanned image, 29" x 26" ca. @300ppi overall, this portion 7" x 5" ca. (id#900).
Scanned with reflected light. Printed in archival pigments on A3Plus, 32.1 x 41.2 cm..
Nori III
Scanned image, 6.9" x 6.2" ca. @300ppi overall, this portion 7" x 5" ca. (id#1014)
Scanned with transmitted light.
Scanned image, 23.4" x 33.3" ca. @300ppi overall, this detail 6" x 8.3" ca. (id#1015)
A scan of a sheet of stationery.
I think every artist must have had a moment of falling in love with the selection of fine artist's papers for sale in art supply stores. Once I spent at least two hours poring over the papers at Pearl Paint in New York in a state of exaltation over their beauty and rich variety. (I think my salivary glands were stimulated.) Yet a beautiful texture can be found even in a simple sheet of stationery.
Scanned image, 17.3" x 16" ca. @300ppi (id#1016)
The subject of the scan was an ordinary laser print made by printing a very pale shade of gray many times on the same sheet of paper, thus building up an extremely subtle texture.
This is not a detail (in fact it is a reduction of the whole image), and as such gives some idea of this near-invisibility that I like to work with sometimes. Still, the original shows much more.
Scanned image, 23.4" x 33.3" ca. @300ppi (id#1017)
A piece of black foam rubber.
Scanned image, 23.4" x 33.3" ca. @300ppi overall, this detail 6" x 7.5" ca. (id#1017)
A piece of black foam rubber, seen up close.
| Untitled (Transparent Enelope III, Transmitted Light), 2005 Scanned image, 10.4" x 13.8" ca. @300ppi (id#1019) A piece of the translucent paper used for envelope windows, scanned with transmitted light. |
Scanned image, 10.4" x 13.8" ca. @300ppi (id#1019).
This detail ca. 3"x4".
A piece of the translucent paper used for envelope windows, scanned with transmitted light.
Scanned image, 10.4" x 13.8" ca. @300ppi (id#1019).
This detail ca. 3"x4".
A piece of the translucent paper used for envelope windows, scanned with transmitted light.
Scanned image, 5.5" x 8.5" ca. @300ppi (id#).
Scanned image, 8.1" x 5.6" ca. @300ppi (id#1022)
I scanned a large slab of ice, which left a pattern of condensation on the scanner glass. This was unforeseen, and a nuisance to remove, but was possibly worth scanning.
| Untitled (Protective Film), 2001 (partial) Scanned image, 21.9" x 16" ca. @300ppi overall, this portion 21.9" x 13.5" ca. (id#1029) |
Scans of Pattern and Texture
Textures and patterns have always attracted me as photographic subjects. Their beauty is self-evident. In their near-uniformity I see tremendous variety rather than monotony. I see them as the results or manifestations of a series of processes and phenomena. Whether they are natural or artificial makes little difference to me (in this section most are artificial), as their creation is just as fascinating either way. (Even more interesting at times are the cases in which the natural has laid its patina on the artificial.)
They also lend themselves to a related interest of mine, which is to work towards invisibility (as is evident from some other bodies of work in this site, especially the inkless embossments in the printmaking section).
All images in this series were created with a flat-bed scanner, using either reflected or transmitted light. Generally there has been little or no retouching, and no photo elaboration except for minor tonal adjustments.
© 2014 Allen Schill. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or used without prior written permission from the author. Anyone is welcome to link to it, or to quote brief passages, but I would like to be notified.
© Copyright Allen Schill