Acme Kruxo, expired c. 1940s, processed 2009
Photograph
Acme Kruxo, expired c. 1940s, processed 2009
From Lament
2009
Gelatin silver print
Overall: 5 × 7 in. (12.7 × 17.8 cm)
Purchase with funds from the Photo Acquisition Fund, 2010
2010.1081.0001
Inscriptions verso (in pencil): SBG-AR-4-0155-C; [artist's signature]; Acme Kruxc [sic], exact expiration date unknown, CA. 1940's, / processed in 2009
TextAlison Rossiter has been finding unexpected beauty in expired photographic papers since 2003, when she processed in her darkroom unexposed Kodak Ektachrome paper that had expired in 1946. She discovered that although the paper was no longer suited to traditional photographic printing, time had left its imprint on each sheet. Changes in temperature and relative humidity, along with fingerprints, mold, scratches, and other accretions, emerged during development, activating her creativity. Surprisingly, the final works often resemble landscapes, constellations, or abstract paintings. Treating her materials as entities with latent memories, Rossiter’s work delivers a sense of the alchemical spell that the earliest photographs likely cast on their nineteenth-century viewers.
