RA4 Contact Print Works
2014–

The RA4 Contact Print works are produced identically to the Black Curl works, but due to the condition of the color processor (its susceptibility to stalling) are also a “contact print” (a print made by the direct contact of the object being imaged) of the interior of the processor itself. The contact prints arose from the increasingly erratic results produced by the Kreonite large-format color photographic processor, which the studio has used since 2008 to produce all of the color non-figurative photographic works, and its increasing propensity to shutdown during processing the paper. Over time, the processor became increasingly susceptible to jams, stalls, and mechanical failures while in use. Furthermore, as digital modes of producing photographic images have become increasingly ubiquitous, the processor has become more difficult to repair due the general phasing out of analog chemical-based systems, and the loss of technicians with the expertise to work on the machines. Thus, repairs during this time have become increasingly improvisational. The progressive degradation of the machine has created increasingly varied results, as various drive train, thermostat, or replenishing failures coincide. Furthermore, the repeated jamming and processor stalls require manually unjamming and restarting the processor, exposing it to various darkroom lights while in repair. This light casts an image of the interior of the processor onto the surface of the print, making a “contact print” of the interior of the machine, evident in the striated tooth-like banding across the print’s surface. The dysfunctional state of the processor creates a variety of effects, each of which relate to a variable in the production of photographs, (for example, the chemistry is effected by thermostat dysfunction, the development time is effected because of failures in the drive train, and so on). The changes evident in the works are not the result of artistic stylistic development, but of the slow degradation of an increasingly obsolete form of technology. While the machine, by industry standards, would be considered dysfunctional, as it can no longer produce conventional photographic prints with any consistency, this dysfunction produces a variety of new types of photographic forms.

The titling convention for the RA4 Contact Print works, follow the same titling convention as the Three Color Curl works, and note the make and model of the processor imaged on the work. The date attributed to the work is the year of its first exhibition, which is separate from the production date included in the work’s title. A final description of the work, for example one that would appear on a wall didactic in an exhibition space, might read:

RA4 Contact Print (MCY/Six Magnet: Los Angeles, California, August 29, 2013, Fujicolor Crystal Archive Super Type C, Em. No. 199–023; Kreonite KM IV 5225 RA4 Color Processor, Ser. No. 00092174; 21613)
2014
Color photographic paper
51 1/2 x 114 1/2 inches