I am a photographer and a painter using antique photograph processes, digital imaging and traditional art materials to create innovative collaged works. By connecting these practises through technical and thematic means, I am investigating mind-body practices. I bring together themes that are historic and contemporary, such as the practises of meditation and yoga. I compose and light my images with references to Dutch renaissance painting. Currently I am working with images of the couple and a narrative around the principal themes of fertility and intimacy.

The coating I use is derived from the photographic process called gum dichromate printing which dates from 1839. Few artists are using this unique process because it is little known and difficult to master. I learned gum printing by trial and error which makes work quite personal. My work begins with a digital photograph which is converted in Photoshop to make a large format negative which is printed by contact (the negative and sensitized paper are the same size). I then hand coat a support (fabric or paper) with a light sensitive emulsion that I fabricate in my studio.

The overlapping of my art practices initiated a collage approach. The painterly qualities of gum dichromate revealed to me the potential to mix it with other media. Like painting, no image in this process can be the same as the emulsion is made fresh for each image, applied, exposed and developed with variations. Using a large format is new for me and is a natural progression from my smaller formats. In the proposed larger formats I am interested in interfacing different mediums together. By working in this way, I am able to express complex ideas which aim to connect contemporary and historical themes and methods. In combining antique and modern processes, I am bringing together the premeditated technique of digital photography, the hands on and unpredictability of the gum process and finally, the more physical, surface driven work of collage.

Valerie Kimpton