by Jeffrey D. Mathias
The concept of Folded Axis Work was discovered in August 1999. It evolved from the Folding Screen Work with a variation on the use of the folding axis. Folding screens have been made by the photographer since 1989. Where a folding screen has a carefully selected axis on which adjacent panels are allowed to fold on their common edge, the Folded Axis Work consists of a single panel which has the axis placed into the middle of the panel and with the image then rotated so as to fold onto itself. The axis is critical and its discovery is the stimulus to making the photograph.
The Folded Axis is physically accomplished by recording the image using two pieces of film at two moments. After processing, the two films are placed emulsion to emulsion and contacted printed with a platinum palladium coating to produce the Folded Axis image.
The resulting image reveals natural symmetries. However, there is not a simple mirror image. Values are added and subtracted as the densities from two negatives are combined. The final values are a combination of the actions of the addition light as with photography and the subtraction of light as with painting. Because the two films are exposed one at a time, the symmetries may be countered with variations in time such as light, wind, and water or earth movement. The inherent symmetries are powerful and difficult to subdue, but have the advantage that they can stimulate thought in the viewer.
The likely reason that anthropomorphic forms emerge from the images is a ramification of the symmetry formed by the fold. Consider that my objective is not to create these forms, rather to study the reasons for why these forms are produced. Also consider that the observer of the image is provoked into thinking. It is expected that the images may invoke thought similar to Rorschach Ink Blot patterns, stimulating the observer to consider and reconsider the construct of nature.
Is nature limited to only that which is at
first apparent? Or as the symmetrical helixes of the human genome
can reveal a wealth of information as to the person, can these symmetries
divulge new understanding as to the construct of nature?
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