saltSCAPES

Prints on Arches Platine salted paper, 12 x 12 cm

After working for two years photographing the salt flats of the Mediterranean (Ibiza, Milos, Trapani, Camargue), I became interested in the technique of printing on salted paper in order to establish a logical link between the subject and the method of treatment. This printing technique, one of the oldest, was developed by Henry Fox Talbot in the 1830s and used until 1860: the paper is made photosensitive with a salt and silver nitrate solution.

Due to the unstable nature of this printing process, each print is unique, with a surface quality that transforms the photographic image into an object or artefact. Thus, the image is more than a simple documentation of a specific landscape. In the inherent instability of this technique, we can see the instability of the landscape itself and its ephemeral characteristics: these are man-made artificial landscapes and in order to maintain them, we must constantly fight against the forces of nature.

The air of nostalgia that permeates these images reflects my feelings on a landscape which is the result of a human industry that has been in existence for centuries, and which will, in turn, disappear when the activity ceases.