Duet

Digital & Gum Bichromate Prints

Two Photographers: Hope Zanes & Phyllis Odessey

Duet is an experimental series of hand-cut photo collages by Phyllis Odessey, that combine digital prints with gum bichromate prints.

Gum bichromate is an alternative printing process. It is expressive, suggestive and exacting. The Gum Prints in these collages were made by Hope Zanes. Hope passed away in 2024. The gum fragments in these collages are selective parts of the original photographs by Hope. I photographed the gum prints and used the copies to create these collages. The originals remain intact.

I am interested in exploring the intersection of the preciseness of the digital photography with the poetic quality of the gum process. The combination of digital with gum is a voyage into the emotional and suggestive quality of the gum print and the specific and explicit nature of the digital print.

Although digital allows the photographer to use any number of filters and software to alter the final image; the gum print presents the viewer with an evocative image. An image equal to Monet’s water lilies. It is the union of these two techniques that intrigues me and offers another way of presenting a photographic image.