Dérive

Emma Tarea
Submission
August 27, 2021
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The Dérive series, developed using different shooting and printing techniques, testifies to research the materiality of the image. Emma Tarea is interested in the stages which modify and alter the photographic medium. Some photographs result from an etching bath which, by the association of chemical substances, attacks and deforms the surface of the image, causing it to slide towards the unreal. Immersion of the negative, direct application of chemistry onto the paper, artisanal preparation of the emulsion and solarisation are all the techniques that have allowed the creation of these images. Subject to unpredictable factors such as temperature or the ultraviolet index, they all have in common that they are part of a practice where the search for accidents is fundamental. In these explorations, there is the desire to exhibit an image in the process of being (un)made. The referent – whether an object, person or place – is displaced in an enigmatic environment. Made up of organic shapes, veils and blisters, the latter brings another dimension to the cliché. The subject is therefore no longer strictly the one present in the photograph but concerns the photograph itself. Through the utilization and juxtaposition of different processes and images containing distinct elements, Emma Tarea examines and questions what constitutes the essence of the photographic medium.

About
Emma Tarea lives and works in Nice, France. After a bachelor degree in Visual Arts and Science of Art, she decided to focus on the photographic medium. She began to learn film and work in a darkroom while continuing her theoretical training. Since 2016, she has developed a plastic work based on the mastery of ancient photographic processes, such as Cyanotype or mordançage. By the successive implementation of different processes, she gives a significant place to the unforeseen. By going back and forth between old and recent techniques, her approach focuses on the materiality of photography, which reveals how an image can be fragile and manufactured simultaneously.
Emma Tarea
Submission
August 27, 2021
Save
Unsave
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