Years ago, my photographer buddy Eric and I worked at a large catalog type studio.
Through conversations, we both realized that while commercial photography was better than a "regular" job, our inner art souls needed more. We began some projects together, which eventually led us to being co-op owners in a small gallery in the beautiful Flat Iron in Wicker Park.
One of our series was the " Shrine Series" It led to some great press and a lot of questions too.
I decided to blog about it as it was years ago and I now feel safe in sharing our techniques.
First, we made a few day road trips in Indiana and Illinois and took regular 35mm shots of roadside memorials.. This is where folks that
have lost a loved one, usually in car accidents, put up a memorial cross, flowers, candles etc. to document and make people aware of what can happen...After we took the photos, we selected our picks and blew them up to 8"x10" or 11"x14" size prints.
This print was then mounted on a large watercolor sheet, thick cold pressed. After we mounted the photo Eric took, I then did painting, mixed media, found objects, etc. around the photo to make it a 3-d type work. After this step, Eric then took a 4"x5" polaroid , which we did in the transfer mode. After the transfer, again on watercolor paper, set, I then took paints and colored pencil and enhanced the transfer print. This print was our end result and it turned out great!
We had a lot of trial and error in this process, and at opening night, we were rewarded by a simple question, "how did you do that?" Well, now I am sharing! Enjoy.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
