I know it seems weird, considering how often I miss my Thursday deadline and end up posting on Friday, but I do have a backlog of ideas for posts. Right now it's 5 of them, and I've really been wanting to dive into one, but it turns out to get more complex each time I start on it. It has to do with categorization in photography. What's the difference between a chlorophyl print and an anthotype? Is this a chemigram or a lumen print? Are my un-developed cyanotypes lumen prints? If I dunk a lumen print in developer, is it still a lumen print?
This may be developing into a serious taxonomically induced existential crisis. I don't know how to categorize a lot of the work I'm doing now. It bugs me sometimes, mostly when I get told that I'm labeling my processes wrong. If I make a "lumen print" with liquids instead of solids, now it's a "chemigram" for some reason. The whys and whens of what to call different photographic techniques are messy.
Sometimes, I'd really like art to borrow a bit more from science and actually define things. Scientists know what they mean when they say something is organic or inorganic, metallic or non-metallic, a semiconductor or a superconductor. I want some taxonomic certainty!
Rainbows don't have lines.
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