The Latent Image (Uncovering Developing)
Short description
"The Latent Image (Uncovering Developing)" is a visual research project focusing on fading photographic life forms. It looks at processes and practices associated with analogue photography, such as “the latent image,” “developing,” “Kodak,” and “the darkroom.”
The photographic latent image is associated with the process of image formation within analogue photography when the image exists in a suspended state between exposure and developing. An imprint is made, but it awaits a process of developing before turning into a visible image. The processes of exposure, recording, delay, potentiality, emergence, and visibility associated with “the latent image” and “developing” allow for an excavation of image pasts as well as for a developing of new images. The postdoctoral research project The Latent Image (Uncovering Developing) will draw upon the two concepts as generative forms in an effort also to develop a series of research methodologies that are more materially and visually grounded. I will focus on specific archives and documentations related to Kodak in Europe, North America, Australia; on various practices and tools of the darkroom, as well as on the uses of ”Kodak” as a motif within art and literature.
The research project is kindly hosted by Media History Research Centre at Milieux, Concordia University, Montréal and the Department of History of Art at the University of Oxford.