David Scheinmann

David Scheinmann is a photogrpher based in London. He has experimented using different techniques of photography. One of the briefs he set himself was to try to take photography out of the usual exhibition formats, to make individual pieces rather than sets or groups of work the same size in the same frame. He wanted to break the uniformity. Hand coating liquid photographic emulsions has certainly been one of the central elements in the development of his approach.

One of the problems he has encountered using liquid emulsion is using the material, Japanese paper, handmade with lengths of silk pressed into the pulp. After going through the wash solutions the silk shrank with the paper becoming knotted. However, he was happy with the effect.

Scheinmann likes to coat the emulsion onto the fabric with a brush as he likes the idea of being able to see the brush strokes, keeping them as part of the image. When working with portraits, he likes the idea of faces emerging from a fury of brush strokes.

Scheinmann has mixed feelings about his work.

"I feel that I produced some very good results almost by accident. I've not been able to duplicate these or to get the same base paper that I originally coated."

He tries to keep an open mind about the result, open to the possibilities that may occur.



Darcey Bussell of the Royal Ballet
Emulsion on watercolour paper

















Rachel
Emulsion on hand-made paper