We’re into the third round of the Open Print Exchange which is now being held annually. To see more about the previous print exchanges I’ve participated in, check out this tag – Open Press Project. This year, I had started on something different and became increasingly frustrated with my 40-something-year-old eyes and the need for reading glasses and was just in a creative rut, so I scrapped the first print and went on to something I know and love – cameras. I picked up the little Brownie Starmite II at a barn sale a few years ago, and was delighted to find exposed film still inside the camera. I sent it off for processing, and you can see the results here.
I took some creative liberty with the body color of the camera, and I have an idea to print this again with a few different body colors just for fun. The paper is handmade paper from recycled political ads from the 2022 election season. We, as a household of two voters, received over 3 lbs of paper mailers which is incredibly wasteful and has a limited (if any) impact on a growing population that doesn’t use postal mail except for packages. I find it pretty tone deaf for candidates who tout their platform as being pro-environmental protections, yet continue to engage is such incredible wastefulness. And there’s no way to opt out either (I tried, honest). So, instead of adding more stress and wastefulness to our recycling/trash stream, I decided to try to recycle it all by hand and turn the hateful mailers into something beautiful. Anyway, the print is done with Cranfield inks, and the blocks in the image at the top are two lino blocks. The paper is 7 cm square (roughly 2.75 inches). I do enjoy working at this small scale since it’s a challenge and actually kind of fun, but my eyes were just giving me SO much trouble this year, and I’m maybe mourning the loss of my youth to a certain degree too. I know this is inevitable, and it’s a part of aging, but I’m finding the changes in my vision harder to accept than the wrinkles and achy joints. Anyway, I’m still happy with how this came out, and it’s a fun project to keep me in practice every year!