everydaydreams
I made everydaydreams in my bathroom with ten rolls of Fuji 400 film, rusted metal, wood, salt, colored lights, my body, and a contraption that let me expose each frame individually.
Heat, cold, pressure, and light.
Reticulation cracked the emulsion with very hot and cold water. Frottage transferred impressions from metal, salt, skin, and wood. I also exposed the film to different colors and strengths of light.
Then I pulled out the whole roll.
I began one frame at a time, with meticulous notes. After a roll or two, I started exposing all 36 frames at once. Walgreens processed the film. The technician looked at the blank, fuzzy images and asked what I had done wrong. I told him, “I don’t know. Maybe I should take a photography class.”
Keep the marks.
I scanned the images with the strongest geometric and graphic impressions, adjusted the contrast, and removed blown-out pixels without erasing the marks made by reticulation and frottage. I wanted the images to feel more like paintings: studies in color, form, and texture that could hold both the grace and abrasions of everyday life.
01
A small vertical abstract image with a red edge above deep blue and green color fields.
David A. Brown
02
A grainy abstract photograph with horizontal bands shifting from red and violet into blue and green.
David A. Brown
03
A soft blue-green abstract field divided at the right by a vertical red and dark blue band.
David A. Brown
04
A luminous abstract photograph moving from turquoise and blue into violet, yellow, and pink.
David A. Brown
05
An abstract photograph of layered red, green, and blue fields with a rounded dark form at right.
David A. Brown
06
An abstract photograph split between a bright turquoise field and a dark brown-violet field.
David A. Brown
07
A grainy blue, green, and red abstract photograph with several translucent vertical forms.
David A. Brown
08
A textured blue-green abstract field divided at the right by a vertical red and dark band.
David A. Brown