Surreal Portraits Created by Painting Developer Onto Photo Paper

Timothy Pakron selectively exposes images of people’s faces by painting developer onto paper in a darkroom.

By using the familiarity of the face as the template, my process involves hand painting the developer in the darkroom, intentionally revealing specific, desired aspects of the face in the negative. Doing so creates a stark negative space that gives the portrait a lucidity. Instead of creating a realistic, straight from film portrait, I am more interested in exploring how the original image can be brought to the surface in alternative ways. The portraits embody their own unique strangeness.

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