“The Anthotype as a Gesture of Hope” by Camila Mangueira
Country: Portugal but from Brazil
Parts used: Red cabbage leaves and Turmeric roots
Application: Pieces of cotton
Exposure time: 4 days.
Month, season and year: Ago, Summer, 2022
Substrate: Fabriano paper mixed media, 250 g
Contrast of final print: ** (Medium)
Amount: 100 g of Red Cabbage leaves / 50 g of Turmeric roots
Extracted using: Blender and paper filter
Thinner: None
Layers: Three layers of each separate pigment were applied in the middle of the image. On the sides, two layers (one layer of each pigment)
Used to create image: Positive on OHP paper
Challenges or observations: Placing the emulsion of the red cabbage leaves with those of the turmeric roots resulted in an interesting impression of stronger contrasts.
Instagram: @camila_mangueira
Additional information:
The anthotype matrix has been created analogically using the mixed techniques of collage and assemblage of OHP sheets of paper. The matrix is based on a didactic image from the 1898 scientific book “The book of life: the spiritual, social and physical constitution of man”. This image depicts a sort of diagrammatic view of where social relations, intelligence, food, colours and music are located in “man” as a kind of harmonization of the senses. The idea behind the work is not necessarily to re-signify the diagrammatic image into a photographic one, but, through an “anthotype gesture”, to add layers of ephemerality, chance and uncertainty to the conceptual images that seek to determine and locate the relationships between the senses, things and human languages. Moreover, in this practice, the mixing and coexistence of the emulsions (leaves and roots) also seek to reinforce the hope potentiated by the anthotype in the nature of relationships, whether in visual representations, creative processes, or life in general.