The anthotype uses plantbased ink sensitive to light, distillated out of plants, weeds and flowers. They got lightened for weeks/months by sunlight until the image tinted into the paper. They slowly destroy themselves using the same light that made them visible, until they dissolve into a vague memory and complete a circular process. This project is a research together with the seasons, forests and layers of earth to find the right plant for the right purpose. Looking for the right plants, teaches you how to look at plants, how to determine them, to name and to connect them in a bigger biotic system.

This technique was started by Henry August Vogel in 1816 and detailed and claimed (by publication) by Sir John Herschal. In all that time Mary Somerville was doing extensive research on light sensitive plant and vegetable emulsions, because women couldn’t publish Herschal added her findings to his publications on the anthotype.

In october 1833 Henry Fox Talbot wrote about the desire to invent a process which could fixate optical images. It was only in 1839 that this act succeeded, which started the birth of photography as a term and invention. In the meanwhile all photographic images disappeared by the light that constructed them.

To take leave is a duoshow with Bram Dejonghe.
DMW Gallery           Antwerp, 2018
09 March - 29 April 2018


Anthotypes, various plant based photographs, different sizes


THESE WORKS LEAVE                    THEY WILL NOT RETURN                      KEEP THEM ON YOUR MIND                  



flag, 2018, 28,5x40cm, Anthotype with platbased ink (poppyflower), wooden birch frame behind the print
times, 2019 (in dissolving stage), 19,4x28cm, Anthotype with platbased ink (poppyflower), wooden birch frame behind the print
killer, 2018, 50x70x3cm, UV-print on mat plexi directly on wood
private isle, 2018, 50x70x3cm, silkscreen with charcoal, elderberries and lilies of the valley, wooden birch frame behind the print
the chain, 2018, 30x50cm, UV-print on mat plexi directly on wood

Ask your hands to know the things they hold ︎