I showed my next project, Imaginary Biology, at The Office gallery. Seeing the large format photographs on a commercial paper I felt the concept needed improvement even though it had good reviews in the press. There was a delicate balance to strike between the subject matter and the printing support. The series needed to be worked further. The photographs are made of pieces of animals paired or juxtaposed with other elements to create sculptural installations. They are photographed floating on a white background. I imagined a paper that would look like skin, with wrinkles, roughness and the transparency of the epidermis. Suddenly, using a gampi paper like the one Mac had showed me made sense.

Washi made from gampi is strong, crisp and has a pearl-like luster. It is smooth to touch and mellow in tone. I used gampi HP-12 because of its transparency but the overall aspect was dull. This was remedied by coating the paper with albumen (egg white), an old recipe photographers used mainly during the second half of the 19th century. When dry the gampi paper wrinkles, gets shinier, more transparent and it can be worked in a lot of ways. The albumen preparation must age for one week and then once coated on the tissue, it takes another 12 hours (overnight) to dry. According to the recipe the paper should be immersed in the albumen for a short while and then dried.

Imaginary Biology#4
2005

But the gampi paper is too thin and I wasted a lot of sheets trying to do it this way. Now, I brush the albumen on the paper and delicately carry it to the hangers. Since the egg white has aged for a week, it has a strong smell when coated on the paper, which goes away after a few days. The next challenge was to feed the gampi paper in the printer (Epson R-2400). I wrapped the paper around an Epson Watercolor-Radiant White sheet. The Epson paper has the right thickness and size so it is easier for the printer to recognize it. I tried using ordinary freezer paper but it was not thick enough. I feed the printer manually from the front so the papers stay flat and don’t get caught in the wheels. Usually when printing with a paper that is different from the ones sold by the printer’s company it is recommended to have a profile made. Unfortunately, it cannot be done for the gampi tissue paper because of its transparency. I used the Epson watercolor paper’s profile and it worked beautifully.

Each piece of washi is different by nature. For example, there are pieces of Mulberry in the gampi paper that add a natural touch to my photographs. It echoes the pieces of the animals in my images in a very subtle way. To keep the natural look of my exhibition prints, I deckle the edge of the paper. It is tricky because the gampi paper is made of long fibers and doesn’t want to tear evenly. In all, I have created a series of 20 prints in an edition of 6, but because each print is hand coated and each gampi sheet is different, no two prints are alike. The contrast between the crisp digital photographs and the delicate paper is striking. The images seem to breath life.