‘Rigid’
Dye transfer prints, framed
51 x 41.5 each, triptych
2019
Three found dye transfer prints. These print are originally made for a tool company’s Pin Up calendar.
The three prints are identical apart from the slight color differences in each print which exposes the
process of a dye transfer print. A full-color photographic printing process that was popular between
the 1920s and the mid 1970s. In these prints, three layers of dye—cyan, magenta, and yellow—
are applied sequentially, by hand, to one emulsion layer.
The process involves many steps and painstaking alignment of each dye layer, and as a result dye
transfers are rare and were seldom made by amateurs.
They are very stable, and, when executed correctly, they allow the photographer exceptional
control over the final color balance. The portraits in this triptych are reminischent to the work
of contemporary artists such as Roe Ethridge and Christopher Williams who play with the visual language
of the erra these images were taken in (late 1970’s).