Printing with Silver! (and SO MUCH MUCH MORE)

2 Thursdays ago (June 3rd) we got to actually make things together and managed to somehow magically be gifted a sunny day from the photo gods. 

We discussed word suffixes like phobic and philic in relationship to words they were already familiar with and how that related in a science context with chemistry. 

We talked more about silver nitrate and silver crystals, how there is a latent image in the darkroom which developer helps grow the crystals big enough so we can see them. We talked about how the visible light spectrum is different wave lengths and how we can see some of them as different colours - we talked about rainbows, prisms and how black and white photo paper makes colours with chemigrams and lumes- not with pigments or dyes but by reflecting back only those wavelengths of colour. 

we made our own photography developer using lemon juice and washing soda- then we talked about super addatives (multiplication of effect in phtoochemistry terms) by adding instant coffee.

we made our own fixer using what the origional photographers used- a basic salt that is commonly found for treating water to make it softer for fishtanks and pools. 

we talked about fabric dying and using resists referencing Batik and then applied that idea to photo paper and made chemigrams exploring 2 different resists(being liquid-phobic). 

we talked about Cliche Verrres and how they are the cross between printmaking, drawing and photography and then made our own which were printed using a solarising technique. 

We also found plants and made accelerated lumen prints / or chemi-lumens with the plants the sun and the photochemistry we made. 

We talked about the difference between photograms and contact prints

We also finally had you all make your chromas from your soil samples! (i'm really looking forward to seeing some of the photos your teachers took documenting- and yours too if you did take some please make a new blog post and add them). 

I've got some snaps of you making things on my instagram here 

Soil Chromatography!

So I mixed up all the materials and ingredients for soil chromatography- which you are all going to do this week!  

What is Chromatography?

Chromatography understands the soil as a being alive, in other words it is an unfinished process with elements working and living in symbiosis. Therefore the final result is a qualitative view of these processes and elements rather than a quantative one.

Chromatography gives you valuable information such as soil structure, general health of soil, minerals available for the plant, biological diversity, or organic matter content and humus available. It also assess the fertility of the soil through the integration of previous elements. 

This is a photographic process using capillary action to make beautiful abstract images which are also science information communication telling us about whats in the soil, and how healthy it is. The main ingredient after soil, water and paper is the Silver Nitrate we use as a sensitiser to make these images. 

gather all your materials.  first before you begin- there's nothing worse than finding you've forgotten something you need!

Health and Safety is important. I have a pair of reusable Nitril Gloves - nitril is the best glove for keeping stuff out and is non allergenic. Eye protection is really important. Also something to keep stuff off your clothes and body- I used to have a labcoat but now I have this awesome apron with a gold skull on it. 

the first photo is some of my soil sample after i ground it in a mortar and pestle and sifted it through a seive- much more uniform. Then i weighed out 5 samples of the same amount of soil and mixed it with the same volume of solvent. 

a theme emerging- i noticed my reflection in the pool of soil sample liquid in my petri dish. 

on the left i'm waving. 

Some Fun Silver Nitrate (AgNO3) Facts:

Silver Nitrate is used...

• to test the exact salinity of Sea Water. (it’s about 35 grams per Liter, by the way…)
• in Oil Fields to determine the amount of Chloride ions in water and drilling fluids.
• in pharmaceuticals and treating skin and flesh wounds
• to prevent premature shrinking/ dropping of buds & blooms, in cut flowers. (2.83% solution)
• to inhibit cut flowers from making ethylene, which causes them to ripen
• as a stain for proteins and nucleic acids in microscopy
• as a glaze for ceramics (Raku and silver wash)
• as a colourant in glass (blues and purples)
• and 
• As a sensitiser in Photography!

a still life of filter sensitization. 

this is a timelapse of capilary action- this process is

used 2x. the first to sensitise the filter paper with silver

the second to suck up the dirty water samples we made

interestingly, the obsorption time changes depending on 

what liquids we are soaking up- the silver was much faster

than the dirt! 

the music is a collaboration by RM Hubbert and Kathryn Williams 

off an albumn called "Tell the Trees"

these are two Chroma I finished soaking up dirty water with and taped them to my window to 'expose' and get the colours  and forms to deepen. 

Analysis of the Chromatogram or Chroma

The analysis of the final chromatogram - the filter paper - seems more difficult.

Comparison between before and after, different locations, may be easier than to pin-point exactly what is producing the patterns.

The different colours we obtain has to be a reflection of the chemical reaction with silver nitrate and whatever compound that is deposited there.

this was from sample 1 it reminds me of a tree stump
or a turkey tail fungi. What do the ones you've made remind you of? 

 

The general rule thumb:

• the more complex the pattern the more organic the soil 
• the less complex the pattern the less organic the soil
• channels and spikes are a good indication of organic material
• deep strong colours also indicate richer healthier soil

Pfeiffer's Criteria for Evaluation of Chromatograms In his book Chromatography Applied to Quality Testing Pfeiffer gives the following pointers for interpreting the chromatography images: 1. Number, width and color of the different zones, as well as their regular or irregular formation and shading. Distinguish between 3 main zones:        a)outer and middle mainly due to the organic material tested        b) inner which indicates the presence or lack of mineralization The width of the zones corresponds to the amounts of characteristic substances 2. Ring formations between the middle and outer zone and at the edge of the outer zone. 3. Color of the zones:      a) a light to medium brown, evenly distributed, points to a good colloidal humus formation      b) dark brown enclosures point to acid humus substances      c) violet radiations point to increasing mineralization and reduced organic substance      d) in the case of plant extracts, vitamin preparations and foodstuffs, other colors are observed. 4. Radiation, number, color and shape of pike-like formations      a) the violet radiations of the inner zone again indicate the breaking-down tendency toward mineralization.      b) the various phases of fermentation (first, decomposition; second, humus formation; third, mineralization and greatly advanced decomposition) are clearly indicated in the chromatograms of soils and compost.

two words you should try to get information on and include in your next blog post:

Solvents: what are they?

Extraction: what is this?

Take some photos of you preparing the chromatography, the chroma's taped to the window and some of them finished include the photos too! This is a pretty abstract portrait of the soil health where you found it. In a way it's photographic portrait of your environment!

these below are ones i didn't absorb the dirty water long enough and i tried to use different solvents to extract the materials from the soil. I like some of the different things that came from these material experiments- while they might not be as good for the science communication they sure are pretty! This is a great way that science and art overlap- there's a lot of *Experimentation* testing things out, trying different things looking for a result.

Collecting Soil Samples Action Shots and Edit

 these are just the photos I took while collecting soil samples and the red ones are the ones that I'm putting together as an edit. In the same way that I'm posting photos of these activities on my blog- we want you to post your images(photos, drawings or anything else)  of soil sample collecting and plate swabbing on your blog. This way I can see what you're doing with the project and leave some feedback for you. 

here are some of the images I like as a basic edit bigger below. There's a LOT of photos! And that's okay. I wont want to use all these later but making art is a lot like a science project. We have some ideas and we start to experiment by collecting a lot of data, making observations and then putting that all together in some way that makes sense for our objectives. Right now we want to document part of the science experiment but also try to make some nice looking images. 

Its worth considering what you want the photograph to 'say' 

this first batch i experimented with composition thinking about the rule of thirds as well as trying to show the 'environment' and landscape i was collecting soil from:

here i made a 'behind the scenes' still life of my tools:

I wanted to do some up close action shots of digging up soil - I was making a video when I noticed I could see the reflection of the tree in my spoon-  so then I got pretty excited and took a lot of photographs of the tree reflected in the spoon with the sample on it.  

it's exciting to try different ways of looking at things- we can find new ways to describe the area around us and what impact there might be. I haven't decided on the composition and spoon/soil reflect I like best so these are the contenders. I might crop one of them to get that "rule of thirds" later. It was difficult to compose while getting the focus and reflection so i decided to make a bigger picture that I can maybe edit later,

just some up close and personal photos of my samples in the carryout container. 

how close can I zoom in and crop before these become abstract and something else? 

soil sample in environment where taken 

it fills the frame while still showing some of the environment it came from

and it's at a fun jaunty angle

action selfie. sometimes its just nice to have some documentation of what you're doing.

if no one is there to take a photo find a way to identify yourself. I used my hair. 

nice close up of one of the first places i collected soil from. it shows a past tense action and other elements of the soil. 

here i thought i'd just take a down on the ground photo of some of the grass nearby

there were also dandelions around so i thought i would document some of the things i saw

then i found this worm, i think its injured. I hope i didn't step on it. :( make sure when you're collecting your samples that you observe health and safety things, consider gloves or if the area you're in is safe to you first, but also try to make sure you're doing no harm to the environment. :)

i found this semi decomposing piece of plastic bag.  I decided it was a part of the environment worth documenting. It's not always just nice nature bits- the bag was kind of interesting in its shape and I got an idea for doing more photography with it. I had a spare bag so I picked it up and took it with me. 

In this way I will both have a positive impact on the environment by removing some plastic litter but also found something to begin a sketch of a project with. Feel free to do the same. We might be able to use it later. Again, be sure you're being safe. 

i found a second location to collect soil samples from. It's closer to the street and had a lot of different elements which i thought were initially visually interesting but also might show some differences in the soil samples. We have some logs, and ivy and iron railing and FUNGI! also a different kind of tree nearby. 

environmental shots. 

looking up this was the evergreen that was above me. 

i found this great piece of bark just laying on the ground. I'm going to do some more photography 'studio style' at home. I thought its shape and texture and lines were interesting. I haven't used the rule of thirds in an obvious way here- the object of interest is centred, but there are contrasting textures and elements- the smooth blue grey pavement (man made) and the green and brown textured grass and soil. They make up triangles that divide the image in half but they end at the edges of the top and bottom pretty close to the 'thirds' 

detail shot of where I dug up some soil, and i wanted to take some phtoos of the fungus- i like the colour and the texture and it looks nice with all the other elements. 

another soil sample in situe 

landscape and soil collection shot from second location

a close up of that bark again. 

another piece of bark with a weird random broken phone cable.... i took that with me too. 

i was lucky and had someone help take some photos of me 'in the moment' again documentary action. These can help when describing the process of the science learning, experiment and communicating that later- but also they're part of the art making and learning process. 

i like this second one better i think.... 

 just wanted to bring in some more of the environment - the flowers are pretty but they also subtly indicate what time of year it is. We know we usually see these flowers at the beginning of Spring - usually March or early April. 

someone getting arty including a different angle and including a perspective that shows more of the tree in an interesting way. 

oh loook the spoon is collecting soil which is being captured on my phone! META. 

action shot of me taking images showing landscape and texture, foreground and background the leading lines and division help direct the eye to the action while clearly describing the complex environment around. 

if you have another way you'd like to try and describe this activitiy, I know a lot of you said you like drawing - go ahead and do some of that too if you want! I'm not a great illustrator so i use interesting photographic techniques to describe these things differently, which we'll get into more the next time we meet. Please do take a few different kinds of photos tho- and next week when you prep the slides with the samples!