About This Project

Emilio Chiofalo

This image is part of a series called “Psychic Matters” in which experimental approaches to analogue photography are used to question the relationship between matter and the psyche drawing on personal experience with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). 

This image is a digital black and white photograph printed on colour silver paper and then burnt on its surface. The burnt emulsion, being chromogenic, turns into a coloured and shapeless material inside the original black and white photograph. The image evokes a phantasmagorical character that seems animated by the evanescent passage of a spirit or of energy. 

By creating effects that appear to be paranormal, the character embodies a certain strangeness, that seems disquieting. The burnt material accentuates the imaginary character of the image and summons an intuition of tactility expressed by the abrasiveness of a sensitive surface reacting to intense stimuli. Sculpted by fire, the melted surface emerges in relief as a shapeless and textured material, punctuating the image with spots that are sometimes dense, sometimes cracked and dry. These spots attract the viewer’s eye by producing an intense perceptual and thus psychic effect.

Instagram