There is an apocalyptic semi-sequential narrative that progresses throughout these images which resonates with these object’s state of discolouring and therefore demise. It was important for me to scan the slide mounts as well as the images themselves as they are indexical of the care and process that went into creating a slide library.

This is a series of slides that have turned red/pink over time as the chemicals within the acetate are unstable; in most cases, as seen here, the cyan layer fades first leaving a magenta and yellow heavy image.

This renders them useless for the purposes of the library and therefore they would be thrown away. However, I kept many of them as I find these discolored slides have a beauty of their own - each slide goes a different colour depending on the original chemical make-up/development process, how they were stored and their exposure to light. Their new colours are often intense, luminescent and gem-like. The hue they take on establishes an aesthetic continuity through this series and completely changes the original art work: the colour shift heightens, and in some cases imposes, drama. The Yves Klein Expression of the Universe in the Colour of Lead Orange made me laugh when I first came across it, but it became a fitting end to this series.

For this project I overlaid two existing images to create a new collage that merges the textures, compositions and colours.

The idea came from shuffling through a handful of slides and holding them up to the light. The way in which the subjects collide and mix creates new layers of meaning. The aesthetic of the overlay/double exposure has been extensively used by some of my favourite photographers such as Norman Parkinson, Erwin Blumenfeld, Man Ray and Boris Mikhailov.