The Creative Mind & Mortality (Artists & Anxiety): Show and Tell

Greetings,

This week we’re going to have an hour of “show and tell.” Tim Layton, from Tim Layton Photography, is going to join us and share some of his work with calotypes (paper negatives) and the projects he’s working on in service of his existential struggles. (https://timlaytonfineart.com)

In what ways do the ephemeral qualities of calotypes (paper negatives) symbolize the human confrontation with mortality and the passage of time?

The paper in paper negatives is like the human body—fragile and temporary, yet it holds the impression of a moment in time, much like our lives carry fleeting memories before they fade, degrade, and decay with age.

Stream Yard: https://streamyard.com/h8xk5frc74

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hySgChnIZNM

The Challenge of Doing Something Different: Examining the Creative Life

Without matte, a full 10” square

MAKING STUFF
I often think about the act of creating something and what it means—a photograph, making a knife (blade-smiting and blacksmithing), or writing something meaningful. What is it that drives us to create? I’ve been reading and thinking about this question for some time. It falls right in line with Becker’s theories; in fact, it’s right at home with terror management theory. Otto Rank believed that art and creativity were essential for human psychological health and development. He argued that art serves as a way for individuals to express their innermost desires, fears, and conflicts. According to Rank, the artist is a heroic figure who confronts and transcends the existential anxieties and limitations of human existence through the act of creation.

“Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it ‘creative observation.’ Creative viewing.”

— William S. Burroughs, Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts

In reality, there are many reasons human beings create “things.” Most of the reasons are somewhat superficial or commercial. I feel the predominant one is rooted in the quest for immortality. We fear dying, mostly because we fear being forgotten and our lives being insignificant. Becker said, “What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance.” I can understand that, at least intellectually. At times, I feel like my creative life and the objects that I create are meant for another time or different people in a different time. In the same way, I look at work created long ago that resonates deeply with me. Maybe it’s just me justifying a fear or a desire, but I think it’s rooted in my unconscious desire for symbolic immorality. There is also an immediate and significant reward; it gives my life meaning and significance. I can see the short- and long-term anxiety buffer in having a creative life.

"Three Mountain Coneflowers in Moon Rocks," 10"x10" (25,4 x 25,4cm) RA-4 Reversal Direct Color Print, July 13, 2023

Tea was made from the leaves and flower heads. Native Americans boiled prairie coneflower leaves and stems to make a solution that was applied externally to draw the poison out of rattlesnake bites. An infusion was used to relieve the pain of headaches and treat stomachaches and fevers.

BEING YOURSELF AND CREATING SOMETHING UNIQUE
Different is good, right? We hear that often. Why do we think that being different is good? It’s usually applied to people who are pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo of something. We hear it chanted often because mediocrity breeds contempt. Meaning that the more familiar you are with something or someone, the more likely you are to find fault with it or them. Human beings thrive on diversity and uniqueness. However, a lot of people resist anything different and want things to remain known, comfortable, and predictable. The truth is that we are at our best when we challenge ourselves and get out of our comfort zones. Most people know that, but most are afraid to do it. They’re afraid to fail.

“ An artist, a man truly worthy of this great name, must possess something essentially his own, thanks to which he is what he is and no one else.” This applies to women as well - remember the context of the time.”

— Charles Baudelaire

How can artists challenge themselves? Hasn’t it all been done before? For the most part, yes, it has all been done before in one way or another. What’s unique is how YOU are applying the concepts, ideas, processes, methods, etc. to the work and the narrative as a whole. You are the difference. Period.

You are something that’s never been before and will never be again. That’s what makes artwork unique—its creator. So, if you copy or emulate someone or something else, you lose that edge—you lose the only thing that will make your work different or unique. I know it’s tempting to always make images that are familiar and that people can easily connect to, but remember, it breeds contempt! Thinking through a compelling idea, question, or concern is the only thing that will make you stand out from all of the others making photographs of the same old stuff or trying to “wow” people by working in some obscure process or using expensive or rare equipment (especially without context or a narrative or story).

This is the reason that I rant so often about the physicality (hand-made or deeply involved connection) of making artwork. It’s the best way to ensure that human beings (you) did the work, not a machine, computer, or software—but that’s an argument for another day.

Charles Baudelaire said, "An artist, a man truly worthy of this great name, must possess something essentially his own, thanks to which he is what he is and no one else." This applies to women as well; remember the context of the time. This quote sums up the ideas that I’m talking about in this essay.

If you want to challenge yourself or push yourself, do something that you never thought you’d do. At least try it. Break some rules and try to tell your story in a different, unconventional way. Don’t follow the advice of the masses: “It’s supposed to look like this or that.” Make it yours; make it fit your story in a new and unique way. Be true to yourself; don’t allow the pressures of tradition to dictate how you express yourself. In the end, your audience is just one: YOU! It’s great if other people “get it” or appreciate it, but it’s more important that you create it in your own unique style, authentic and true, whatever that looks like.

"White Poppy," 10"x10" (25,4 x 25,4cm) RA-4 Reversal Direct Color Print, July 13, 2023

Long before Europeans discovered North America, Native Americans were aware of the biological activities of extractions from poppies and using Argemoneas source of medicines. They used concoctions derived from poppies for anesthetizing fish, sedating humans, removing warts, treating cold sores, cuts, scrapes, and congestion associated with colds and flu, and as a soporific, an emetic, and a laxative. The first Americans had other uses for poppies as well, including dyes for fabrics and tattoos.

"White Poppy," 6.5” x 8.5” Palladiotype from a Paper Negative (Calotype), September 21, 2022

Long before Europeans discovered North America, Native Americans were aware of the biological activities of extractions from poppies and using Argemonea as a source of medicines. They used concoctions derived from poppies for anesthetizing fish, sedating humans, removing warts, treating cold sores, cuts, scrapes, and congestion associated with colds and flu, and as a soporific, an emetic, and a laxative. The first Americans had other uses for poppies as well, including dyes for fabrics and tattoos.

"Three Mountain Coneflowers, Antlers (as bleached bones), Rocky Mountain Wheat Grass and European Silver," 10"x10" (25,4 x 25,4cm) RA-4 Reversal Direct Color Print, July 13, 2023

Tea was made from the leaves and flower heads. Native Americans boiled mountain coneflower leaves and stems to make a solution that was applied externally to draw the poison out of rattlesnake bites. An infusion was used to relieve the pain of headaches and treat stomachaches and fevers.

I’m starting to put these images together as diptychs. They look beautiful together—different languages saying the same thing. I love it.

“Damaged Willow Tree, Fremont County, Colorado,” 10"x10" (25,4 x 25,4cm) RA-4 Reversal Direct Color Print, July 15, 2023

The iPhone snap of this isn’t that great, but the print looks wonderful. I’m very happy with the results of this process. Lightning struck or a wind storm tore this willow tree apart. It was a very dramatic scene. I love how the clouds show up in the image. This is a very painterly image to me.

Without matte, a full 10” square

“White Poppies In a Field in Fremont County, Colorado,” 10"x10" (25,4 x 25,4cm) RA-4 Reversal Direct Color Print, July 15, 2023

I never really know exactly what I’m going to get with this color reversal process. What I hope for is either muted colors or shifted colors. Colors that are just enough to seem real or accurate but shifted just enough to make you wonder about what you’re seeing.

I was very pleased in the darkroom today to see this appear in the developer. I’m reminded of an old Polaroid or expired film from the 1960s. I really like how it evokes memories with its aesthetic. The white poppies are blooming everywhere right now. They look wonderful on the landscape.

Calotype (Paper Negatives) Made With A Pinhole Camera

This year I’ll be exploring something I played with many years ago. Twenty years ago, I made wet collodion tintypes with a pinhole camera; I called them "pin-plates." I’m going to revisit that idea, but this time I’ll be making calotypes (paper negatives), which will be printed out in a variety of P.O.P. processes.

Why am I doing this? I want to make prints that are more abstract or have more poetry in them. I’m interested in semiotics; I want to evoke the feeling of a dream or memory. Also, adding distortion or "confusion" may be interesting as well. Just as a reference, semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and how they are used to convey meaning, such as the way a red octagon is used as a sign for "stop" in many countries' traffic signals. Largely symbolic.

I’ve been thinking that I may end up using the "vignetted keyhole" approach (see "Plastic Jesus"). I’ve used this a lot in the past. Using an optic (lens) that doesn’t quite cover the plate or film size and creating a circular image, they can be very striking and interesting.

These images always remind me of looking through a peephole, implying that you are witnessing something that you shouldn’t be seeing or that you are seeing something that only you can see. A peephole, also known as a peekhole, spyhole, doorhole, magic eye, magic mirror, or door viewer, is a small, round opening through a door from which a viewer on the inside of a dwelling may "peek" to see directly outside the door. The lenses are made and arranged in such a way that viewing is only possible in one direction. This implies some kind of privilege as well, a potentially great metaphor for my project. The circular shape is also very symbolic to me in reference to the Tabeguache Ute and the "Circle of Life." There are a lot of great reasons to pursue making these images.

My main goal for this work, or any work I make, is to have it act as a catalyst for ideas—to share these theories from anthropologists, psychologists, philosophers, and historians (among other disciplines) in the hope that some of these ideas will resonate with other people. Death anxiety and the denial of death are such universal dilemmas—we will all die. We should all have a stake in understanding ourselves and others through these lenses (no pun intended).

The Calotype or Paper Negative

Calotype. The word is from the Greek words Kalos, “beautiful,” and tupos, “impression”. It’s the first photographic process invented and patented in 1841. Calotypes are paper negatives. The original process was invented by a British man called Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877). It was the first negative-positive photographic process (meaning you could make positive photographic prints from the negative). It was the invention of photography.

Talbot began making his photographic prints on paper in 1834 at Laycock Abbey, England - in his ancestral mansion. Talbot wasn’t very well-liked in a lot of circles. He was protective of his process and charged a substantial amount of money to use it (license). If you tried to use his process without the proper credentials, he would sue you.

While I don’t use Talbot’s recipes or methodologies, what I do is very similar and would still be called a Calotype or Calotypy. I use a process invented by Alexander Greenlaw (1818-1870). The earliest account of Greenlaw's process was published in Photographic News in January 1869, also in the 8th edition of John Towler's book the Silver Sunbeam in 1873 which seems to use Greenlaw's own words. There is also an account in the 7th edition of Abney’s Instructions in photography dated 1886. This is very late for a process that peaked in the mid-1850s. Indeed it was still being cited in the early 1900s. Here we are in the 21st century and it is still viable.

The paper negative is a beautiful thing in and of itself. I started making them over a decade ago when I lived in Europe. What piqued my interest was the history of the process and that it was the original process in photography. It’s easy to connect these ideas and facts to my work today. The historical part is important because I’m working with land and people that were original. The Ute or Tabeguache people say that they were here since time immemorial. The original people. Their origin story talks about the Creator Sinawav gathering sticks and turning them into people.

Part of the story says this, “In the ancient times only Sinawav, the Creator, and Coyote lived on the earth. They had come out of the light so long ago, that no one remembered when or how. The Earth was young and the time had come to increase the people. Sinawav gave a bag of sticks to Coyote and said ‘Carry these over the far hills to the valleys beyond.’ He gave specific directions Coyote was to follow and told him what to do when he got there. ‘You must remember, this is a great responsibility. The bag must not be opened under any circumstances until you reach the sacred grounds.’”

I make a lot of photographs of trees. Trees are so vital to the indigenous people here. They have been used for food, shelter, ceremonial objects, etc. They are symbolic too. They are used as a metaphor in a lot of stories. The wood is made into paper. I make the negatives on paper. The connection here is profound to me. Working with materials that are made from the subject matter you are photographing is meaningful to me - a material-to-concept connection. And the people that lived here believe they were created from this material.

A test print from a Calotype (paper negative). I was attempting to render the tiny cross on the distant hill. The Palladiotype I printed didn’t show it, so I made a K1-Kallitype test today and it did. A warm developer with a lot of Borax gave this color. It is not toned, only cleared, fixed, and washed.

Detail of the above print. Forgive the iPhone photos.

A new Calotype I made today. I called it, “After the Rain, a Waterhole in Granite”. I’ll make a print of it soon. I like the abstract-ness of it and the shapes. The old Ponderosa Pine on the granite feels like it had something to do with the (almost) perfectly round watering hole - and yes, it’s filled with water. How did it form like this?

Inverted negative in Photoshop. Will look really good as a K-1 Kallitype or Palladiotype.

In the Shadow of Sun Mountain (Tava Kaavi)

“The key to the creative type is that he is separated out of the common pool of shared meanings. There is something in his life experience that makes him take in the world as a problem; as a result, he has to make personal sense out of it.”

― Ernest Becker, from the Denial of Death

I was born in Utah (U.S.A.). It was named after the Ute people. The Nuuchu, or “Mountain People” occupied most of Utah and Colorado for centuries, long before the Europeans arrived on this continent. 

I currently live in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It’s beautiful here. The landscape is breathtaking. It’s the closest thing to a perfect place I’ve ever been. However, it has a very sordid and sad history. 

Most Americans live their day-to-day lives without ever thinking about the real history of their country. Topics like genocide, land dispossession, forced migration, and colonization are rarely discussed, if ever. Every day I go outside and I’m reminded of this land’s past and the people that lived here. For me, it’s unavoidable.

Through these photographs, I want to share both the beauty and the tragedy of this place I call home. I want to esteem the Ute people both past and present. And I hope to engage the viewer long enough to put this history and the people into their consciousness. Ken Burns said, “Being an American means reckoning with a history fraught with violence and injustice. Ignoring that reality in favor of mythology is not only wrong but also dangerous.”

RED MOTHER EARTH - WHERE THE PEOPLE OF SUN MOUNTAIN LIVED
A Whole Plate Palladiotype print from a Calotype (paper) negative.

I’ve approached this work from a place of deference, wonder, sadness, and loss. I’m torn about where I live and what I know. I often think about what happened here and question why it did. It confuses me and creates inner conflict for me; like a type of cognitive dissonance. I struggle with living on this land, and yet I’m in awe every day of how sublime and beautiful it is here.

What do I do with this terrible history? My answer is to embrace it, study it, wrestle with it and transform it into a weapon for the human spirit; one that will enlarge my sense of responsibility and strengthen my moral resolve.

This project has also served as a cathartic release for me. It’s one of the biggest reasons why the work was created. While the work is metaphorical, it acts as a catalyst in resolving my relationship with the land, its history, and the people that lived here. Telling some of their stories through my images gave me a better understanding of who I am in relation to this place and its history and people.

At dawn, Tava-Kaavi (Sun Mountain) is the first Colorado mountain to catch the sun’s rays. The mountain is over 14,000 (4.300m) feet above sea level. The Ute believes it’s where Mother Earth meets Father Sky.

Before it was America’s Mountain, “Pikes Peak” (its colonized name), it stood at the center of the Tabeguache (tab-a-watch) band of the Nuche/Ute tribe’s geography and identity. They were the “People of the Sun Mountain,” placed here by Sunif (the wolf) to grow and flourish amid the foothills of the majestic peak.

The Tabeguache tribe was the largest of the ten nomadic bands of the Ute. They followed the herds of wild animals throughout their lands, harvesting the elk, deer, and buffalo at specific places at certain times of the year. This lifestyle mandated that they move their camp every three or four weeks. They constructed a medicine wheel at the heart of each new camp, linking them to Mother Earth like an umbilical cord. The rock outcroppings were called, “the bones of Mother Earth”. And the large red rock formations were considered “grandfathers.”

WILLOW TREES - FREMONT COUNTY, COLORADO
Crack willow (salix fragilis)! Willow bark was steeped as a tea by Native Americans, and the young twigs and bark were chewed to relieve headaches. It was later found the active ingredient was salicylic acid, the basis of today's aspirin. The chemical name for aspirin comes from the willow family name, Salicaceae.

A Whole Plate Palladiotype print from a Calotype (paper) negative.

I live in one of the areas where the Tabeguache tribe lived during the summer months. My photographs are about coming to terms with my relationship with the land, the people, and its history. I want to honor the people, the plants they used, the rocks, and the trees they dwelt among and used to survive and thrive for many centuries. I’ve spent time learning about the symbolism and metaphors they used and I’ve constructed photographs based on historical and contemporary uses of these ideas and beliefs.

The work is made with the 19th-century wet and dry collodion photographic processes as well as the Calotype process (paper negatives) in the Whole Plate format (6.5” x 8.5”). I used a period lens circa 1870 for the work. From the glass and paper negatives, I’ve made Palladiotype prints (Palladium), 1873, and original Kallitype prints (1889). Both are contact printing processes. It was very important for me to use period processes and period gear for these images. The processes and optics have a way of transporting the viewer to that time period (the 1840s - 1890s). 

I called this body of work, “In the Shadow of Sun Mountain”. The photographs are all made with the great mountain watching over.

The Ute honored and respected this land and all of its life, never taking more than they needed. The fauna, flora, and landscape represent all that they loved. It provided the shelter, food, and medicine they survived on. Their life here was balanced and good.

Ben Mitchell, guest curator of "Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian" said "...history is a very powerful force, because history, when you’re immersed in it, isn’t just looking at the past, history constantly informs the present you’re living in — or it better, if we’re paying attention...history also points us to our future that we’re going to share. We learn from history how to live in our present, and how to plan to live in our future.”

I can’t change the past. No one can. But my hope is that the viewers of this work will see the beauty and the tragedy. I want the photographs to reflect the memories of a better time and wrestle with the history and terrible events that followed. My goal is to put a “pebble in the viewer’s shoe”. I want them to contemplate the past, the present, and the future. I hope to inspire, motivate and create compassion and empathy for the people, the land, and all the life on it.

“Art is crucial for transforming death and pain into forms that can in some way enhance the life that remains.” 

Robert Jay Lifton

WHITE POPPY

Native Americans found many uses for the alkaloids in the white poppy. Preparations made from different poppy species have been used to treat skin disorders, eye problems, headaches, toothaches, digestive trouble, coughs, colds, and insomnia.

A Whole Plate Palladiotype print from a Calotype (paper) negative.