The project ‚holocene‘ focuses on exploring our relationship with nature through the lens of landscape photography. During the pandemic lockdowns, I became fascinated with how the collodion process captures the natural environment. The silent trees, their trembling reflections, and the fluid light all contributed to a unique and powerful representation of our world.
As I continued to explore various landscapes around Berlin, the project „Holocene“ began to take shape. With every glass plate I coated with collodion, exposed, and developed, I discovered something extraordinary: these detailed forest landscapes appeared ancient but had actually been cultivated for hundreds of years. I saw the beauty and complexity of human-altered landscapes, which challenged my assumptions about what „nature“ means in the Anthropocene era.
In 1849, Paul Gervais used the term „Holocene“ for the first time, describing it as the geological layer where no „presence of humans“ could be found. One year later, the wet collodion process was discovered, revolutionizing the way we see our environment.
Both in the early days and today, this photographic process demands patience, precision, and attention to detail. It involves coating a sheet of glass with collodion—a viscous solution containing nitrocellulose, ether, and alcohol. The collodion is then sensitized with silver nitrate, forming a light-sensitive layer on the glass. The plate is exposed in a camera and developed in a darkroom using a solution of developer, fixer, and water while still wet. The resulting image is a unique, one-of-a-kind glass negative. The works are contact prints made on handmade silver chloride paper using different binders such as gelatin, albumen, or collodion. The sensitized paper is exposed to sunlight in contact with the glass negative and processed in various chemical baths.
shows
- Fotogalerie Friedrichshain, Berlin, DE: 2024, November 11 – January 11
- Vazerol14 Gallery, Chur, CH: 2022, November 12 – December 11.