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Leaf Cutting

Cameraless Photographs by Gregory Spaid

          Leaves occur in such abundance where I live in rural Ohio as to seem worthless, and yet each leaf is astoundingly complex and beautiful, both in form and function. I think of the leaves in this work as visual representations of wildness, while the alterations I make to them -- the cutting -- is a form of rational human intervention that characterizes our relationship with nature, for better or for worse.

          These images are cameraless photographs made from negatives I make by hand -- a process known by the French term Cliché Verre. Cliché Verre is one of the earliest uses of light-sensitive photographic materials. In the mid-19th century, it was used by a few French landscape painters, including Corot, Delacroix, Millet and Rousseau, to reproduce drawings they made on glass plates.

          My process is a hybrid one and an experimental contemporary version of that early process. After making a negative by hand, I scan it, process it digitally, and then print it as an archival inkjet print. Because there is no right or wrong way to make Cliché Verre images, I invent my technique as I work and let chance and discovery shape my approach. The subject of this work is leaves that I collect, make translucent, cut in unique shapes, and then combine with other materials (including maple syrup, blueberry juice, glue, India ink) to make handmade “negatives.”

 

Leaf Cut #9, oak, 2019
Leaf Cut #10 (maple), 2018
Leaf Cut #27 (poplar), 2018
Leaf Cut #62, redbud, 2023
Leaf Cut #1 (maple), 2018
Leaf Cut #65, sassafras, 2020
Leaf Cut #36 (oak), 2018
Leaf Cut #22 (maple), 2018
Leaf Cut #41, golden rain tree, 2018
Leaf Cut #9, oak, 2019
Leaf Cut #5 (poplar), 2018
Leaf Cut #52, redbud, 2019
Leaf Cut #17 (oak), 2018
Leaf Cut #52, redbud, 2019
Leaf Cut #37 (fern), 2018
Leaf Cut #30 (yellow bird of paradise tree), 2018
Leaf Cut #38 (Mexican bird of paradise), 2018
Leaf Cut #34, oak (light), 2018
Leaf Cut #57, maple, 2020
Leaf Cut #56, oak, 2020
Leaf Cut #58, sassafras, 2020
Leaf Cut #64, redbud, 2023
Leaf Cut #47, ash, 2019
Leaf Cut #26 (beech), 2018
Leaf Cut #15 (maple), 2018
Leaf Cut #31 (catalpa), 2018
Leaf Cut #63, catalpa, 2023
Leaf Cut #39, oak, 2018
Leaf Cut #60, elm, 2019