Rachel
Reisert

Unfixed

The images in this series are created using a camera-less process known as lumen printing. Plant objects are placed on light sensitive paper under glass and set outside for exposure by the sun. The organic materials release their moisture under the heat of the light and render unique but fleeting imagery. The color of the image becomes dependent on the biological composition of the plant, its opacity, and the length of time left out for exposure. There is a glow and magical quality to the unfixed lumen print that is lost when treated in traditional photographic chemistry. To capture and contain the image, I quickly scan the paper before the image fades. The original print surrenders to the light of the scanner, but its record remains.

My work draws form and meaning from the natural world to address the qualities of impermanence, transformation, and quiet magic. Through materials found in wild spaces or collected along overgrown roadways, I seek to honor the overlooked beauty and resilience of these small treasures. Through acts of picking, breaking, tearing, plucking, and sewing, I explore both additive and subtractive processes of making, echoing the push and pull of nature itself.

The stitch becomes a metaphor for our complex relationship with the environment, and suggests a desire to control, to hold, and to keep still. Control is futile, however, as natural cycles are sure to persevere. Thread binds, mends, and repairs, but it also marks and alters. Subsequent prints are made from stacking photo paper behind the sewn page. Light passes through the paper and renders a pink version of the image bearing the physical evidence of the needle's path. The punctures and disruptions mirror the marks we leave on the world around us. In this way, the work navigates the tension between reverence and intrusion, recognizing our desire to preserve while confronting our capacity to harm.