Tracy Longley-Cook | Topographies
Topography #1
Digital Pigment Print (30″x30″)
2011
Statement
In this series of photographic images I am exploring themes of personal and geographical
landscape from an alternative point of view. Utilizing my body and photographic chemistry to
create direct imprints on film, the resulting negatives are then scanned, cropped and printed as
large-scale digital prints. Visually, the "body prints" mimic aerial landscape photographs, where
scars, hair or wrinkles are reduced to black and white lines that emulate land and water
formations. Through this comparison, a correlation is drawn between the earth's surface as a
record of natural and man made alterations, and the body (specifically the skin) as a record of
individual experience.
The human body’s largest sensory organ is the skin. While covering and protecting our entire
physical surface it provides us with a defense against most environmental dangers. It is
constantly being renewed as old cells die and new cell growth regenerates the skin to continue its
protective function. Skin is also a reflection of the person, in the sense that it denotes someone’s
age, cultural identity or race, wellbeing, as well as identity. Fingerprints, which appear on the
hands and soles of the feet, do not change over the span of a lifetime offering one method to
distinguish one individual from another. Scarring, hair growth, warts, calluses, wrinkles, and
other dermatological variations reveal a wealth of information about who we are. Our skin
provides a record of experience and a means to navigate a particular kind of personal history. In
a similar vein, the surface (the skin) of various terrains within the landscape offers a comparable
history of the earth’s lifespan. Natural and human influenced alterations present a way to detect
change, both gradual and immediate. Geological and man-made structures, water formations,
erosion, and weather patterns alter the natural world, creating a lasting mark imprinted onto the
environment.
The method of imprinting the body on film is a cameraless process, where photographic
chemistry is placed directly on the skin, and then impressed onto film before exposing it to light.
Once developed the areas where the chemistry has touched the film will remain clear, and the
areas where only light has hit the film will remain opaque. The result is a negative impression of
the details of the skin’s surface—revealing fingerprints, hair, scars and other physical variations.