After arriving on Monday, I got straight down to work with my assistant Andreas, who’s done a great job of constructing a darkroom down in the basement. We’ve managed to develop the first films, do some printing and tested the photo-emulsion on permatrace and it works. My first test image was of a road, not here, but in Ireland, near my point of departure.
Interesting how it looks with different backgrounds and light conditions. The semi-translucent quality of the paper makes the background show through. I have had the thought that hanging in space might be good, then as the viewer moves the background would change.
I’ve also got started on the map. This is my reference point for the project. Each time I venture out to do some work, then the path I follow will be marked on this map, as well as identifying the empty houses hereabouts. So far I know of six buildings of which five are houses. The other is another factory, that has a sign with ‘Design House’ outside. I have a feeling that this will be almost unreadable by the end of my stay. I suspect I’ve spotted another house that no-one has mentioned to me, I’ll see what is out there in the next week, when I spend much more time in the village and around it.
In a strange coincidence, perhaps, in the week Andreas found an ‘ambulance’ stretcher in the basement (outside the darkroom). Strange because in 1999, I did a project where I also found stretchers in an industrial building. This is a good omen, I now have the first found object, or artefact for the project.
