Crossing the Bromoil Bridge
We think of bridges as ways over difficult terrain or water. They afford a safe passage that takes you across a barrier or, figuratively speaking, a self-constructed limitation. Bromoils are difficult to make but once the barriers are crossed, new vistas beckon.
The physical making of pictures is a delight. It’s not that pictures necessarily ‘look better’ when chemically printed or that the pictures are more faithful to the scenes that they depict. It has little to do with the images and more to do with oneself.
I print in the traditional ways because the physical and contingent nature of the results gives me the sense that I am participating in … In what? That’s difficult to answer but I think Heidegger came close to expressing it. It’s a feeling of coming home. For those that like Bob Seger, his ‘Comin’ Home’ song expresses the feeling that I get when working on a traditional darkroom print.
An Irish Garden, County Mayo. A Bromoil Print. ©Author
I’m drawn by:
The simplicity of its technique. A few chemicals, a brush and some ink. But the simplicity of its tools and materials can give a false impression of what lies ahead.
Then there is the contingent nature of the final print. Each is unique, incapable of being exactly reproduced. Each bears the countless decisions and struggles of its making.
Each has its own imperfections teaching us acceptance - that is how things are. A quietism is instilled.
Finally, the Bromoil print itself can be a lovely thing to behold. The word ‘behold comes from the Greek word ‘eido’, which means "be sure to see". I take it that the physical nature of the print invites a gaze rather than a glance. The Old English word ‘behealdan’ could be used in many ways: to hold, have, occupy, possess, guard, preserve, contain, belong, keep, observe, consider, look at, gaze on, see, signify, avail, effect, take care, beware, be cautious, restrain, act, behave. Holding a print in the hand invites us to experience it in many different ways.
A Walk in Liverpool, Bromoil Print.