Leaving Oz

The title of this image is "There's No Place" from my series Heart of This Home which I produced in the summer of 2007. The series was shot with a 4x5 camera. I recently revisited this negative in the darkroom and wanted to expand it's definition.

I created Dorothy Leaving Oz, an 18 photograph series of images which started with a primarily with contact print from the original negative, secondarily with a contact print of the first print, and so on, (note the negative and positive flux), until the image became a harmonious grey tone.

(Each print was created with the print that came before it, in other words)

I wanted to visually express Dorothy's transition between worlds to parallel what is said in the text of the original novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The word "grey" is used ten times in the first chapter of Oz. Creating this work was much more effective for my than the overall impact; waiting for each image to go through chemicals and dry to be able to print the next slightly more grey image was silently haunting. (I made sure to create all 18 prints without leaving the room once for a personal effect!)

...

It took a bit.