TITLE: Katabasis

I am fascinated with the power of the two dimensional image because of its potential to describe another dimension, something existing behind the world of the physical. In this work I explore the various ways in which the photographic printmaking process can produce something potentially surreal and otherworldly. By way of manipulating analog film and printing on silver gelatin paper using lithographic chemistry I am attending to a tedious process that hopefully will reveal something not only just chemical but also alchemical. At the final stages of enlarging a film negative to print, I am working to locate and dissect a mood and environment that represents a place only the imagination can produce. Using both studio settings and specified locations, and experimenting with film exposures, I desire to take the literal representations of the subjects and further distort them, exaggerate them, fragment them, so that they instead morph into something allegorical of a world that exists somewhere within memory and the unconscious. In this way I want to erect dioramas wherein one can observe representations of psychological landscapes. These realms explore the mystery of dream space, existential contemplation, repression of sexual desire, the paradoxes of embodiment, and emotional catharsis. These images may be of a reality that we perhaps cannot objectively point to but can subjectively relate to and recognize within aspects of our own inner being.

AUTHOR: Soen Settanni (United States)

I am a 34 year old fine art photographer working in analog film and darkroom printing and residing in Oakland, CA. I grew up in Southern California and graduated with a degree in Philosophy from the University of California Santa Cruz in 2007. Since I was a teenager I began DJing and writing music in the genres of electronic music and experimental music. I originally went to collage to study music but with insufficient classical training I had to choose another major and instead left with a degree in philosophy. After collage I explored Zen meditation and Buddhism and worked and practiced for several years at various meditation centers in Northern California, Colorado, and New Mexico. After intensive practice and study at these centers I left to pursue a career in music production while working various trades in the culinary industry. I eventually moved back to Oakland in 2014 and wrote and performed electronic music in the Bay Area. In 2017 I decided to try shooting film in a camera my father had given me a few years back, it was a 35mm Olympus OM-10 camera. After finally getting it developed months later I was amazed at the quality of the pictures, and mystery of film and light exposure. I explored further and soon decided to try out planned controlled portraits in a studio setting with various themes and using my friends as models. It soon grew from there into exploring the full range of analog film and photography and i purchased a Yashica LM medium format film camera. Early on I was turned on to surrealist photographers like Francesca Woodman, Clarence John McLaughlin, and Man Ray. Starting in 2018 I began taking classes in darkroom printing and soon became the main patron at a local community art center's darkroom. In March of 2018 I joined and helped establish a 7 person person of color photography collective named "& The Others" in the intention of creating a collective resource for each other to learn, grow, and support each others work. In January of 2019 we had our first group exhibition at Classic Cars Gallery in Oakland and participated in the Oakland Art Murmur. Starting in May of 2019 we will be setting up a 24hr access darkroom for our collective group and other associates to use and I hope to grow and expand in the art of darkroom art as well as share my knowledge and experience with those interested in darkroom photography.