Altered Portrait

Artist Statement:

The subject of this photo is my friend's dog, Yote. I used photoshop to make the original photo black and white, and then inverted that. I then printed the inverse onto transparency paper, and used that to creste this print in the darkroom. When using the chemicals to develop the photo, I only painted developer on some parts of the photo, which made it look really cool and it played with negative space a lot. I chose to create this photo because I really liked the centered aspect of the dog's face, and I thought it would be cool to change the balance it had. I used the elements and principles of line, because the developer created different lines; shape, because the dog had shapes in it's face and the developer also created new shapes; value, because the black and white created different shades of grey; texture, because the dog already had texture in her fur, and the developer added to it; and movement, because it's almost as if you can see the movement of the brush strokes on the print.

This print contains the composition rules/techniques of rule of thirds, because her face is in the required places; informal balance, because it seems balanced, although it isn't perfectly; leading lines, because the paint brush strokes lead around the print; and framing, because the white space kind of frames the developed part of the print. Originally, I was going to use a spray bottle to apply the develper, but then decided to use the paint brushes after I created a failed print.

This print is of one of my favorite dogs, so it means a lot to me. I really like the technique I used and I think it turned out pretty good. I do wish I exposed the photo paper for a little longer, because it seems a little light. I also wish that the dog actually took up the full paper, because it is kind of small.