While doing my every day general browsing of the internet I came across an artist named Ben DeHaan's latest project that he titles "Uncured."
As you can see, what Ben has done is take portrait photographs and made them appear to be melting before your eyes. What's the cause of this trippy exhibition? Is it the sweltering heat? No, he actually removed all UV light from the printing process, therefore preventing the ink from being able to dry. That combined with gravity causes this neat sensation.
The following is taken from his official website. There, you can also find videos of this effect in action.
“Uncured” explores the expectations of photographic image in a digitally ubiquitous era. A digital photograph is simply ink sprayed on substrates to create an exact replication of a digital file. I’m interested in breaking down the image to its inherent properties to reflect on photography’s role in constructing its significance.
Is our expectation of portraiture to represent the individual? Gravity, humidity, air, density, viscosity, pressure, light, and time are isolated as variables within the photographic medium, all of which construct the image and contribute to our perception of it. By subverting a digital production method, I am exploring how the photographic subject matter is transformed as control is released and the photograph itself responds to forces in the physical world. By allowing the inks to remain in their fluid, uncured state, these variables begin to shift the subject matter’s role in the image and to create a visual experience beyond exact replication of a file.
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