Silvery Synthesis
by Dominick Porras 2024
35mm / Silver Gelatin / Nets / Sculptural
Silvery Synthesis is a prolific vessel re-emerging from a deep hibernation. In this body of work there are several images from a Tolowan Di-nee Fish Camp in California, a family burial in Texas and images throughout Sacramento Valley which all inform my personal and inter-tribal relational experiences. In producing this body of work I have coupled classical with contemporary darkroom practices.
In addition I have also incorporated a rasquache aesthetic by employing netting on abandoned silkscreen frames and repurposing 35mm film cassettes into sculptural works.
My return to 35mm and film as an art praxis has been significantly short. It has required an immense amount of time revisiting dormant
theory and reengaging traditional lens-based research practices in both the field and studio darkroom. This departure from my practice
started around the time I began my journey into parenthood, 20 years ago. There was also incredible pressure to join the digital era and
ultimately abandon film. As a result, that practice remained shelved but not forgotten.Silver is both a color and precious metal (Ag).
It is also the active element in photography that is chemically altered to react as a light sensitive emulsion. As the silver halides (AgX)
interact with photo chemistry, a type of rusting occurs which produces silvery tonal ramps, resulting in a reflective and shimmery quality
that the silver inherits. Alas, silvering is reflective of the aging process in both photography and existence.
Embodied in Rasquachismo ( an impudent Chicano aesthetic) my work signifies a necessary reformulation through a photographic presentation.
35mm processing hangers 9' x 30" 2024
Iteration I
My preference in photo chemistry is not limited to mass-produced and conventional formulas but rather work with fresh batches of traditional formulas, particularly, Pyro PMK as film developer. Resulting in a finer experience.
Silvery Synthesis informs an intimate relation with family, community and nature. I am also woking on small works that reveal finer detail as opposed to scaled pixelated-laden works. The quality produced in film-based works retain an earthly quality that delineates digitally-based photo works.
Relations and Gifts
I would like to acknowledge the wonderful friends from the American Indian Film Institute, Mytia Zavala and her family who is able to share Mytia with the world. Mytia is the daughter of the late founder of AIFI, Michael Smith. Mytia also leads the tribal touring program, which brings together indigenous filmmakers with indigenous and tribal communities to collaborate through flilmmaking. Along with the filmmaker crew, the community in Tolowa Di-nee' formulated relations through language immersion, cultural exchanges and socio-political engagements.
Gift of Grooming
Catching up with family in San Felipe Del Rio, TX and celebrating the life of my late aunty, Elodia "Lodi" brought together family from across the state. Grooming in the time of mourning, is relatively a common practice shared amongst many cultures. It signifies an individualistic choice in choosing to present themselves during this departure. My younger nephew was kind enough offer his gift of grooming to lucky members of the family while I made memories of it all.
Da’-chvn-dvn
12’ x 31” Polyptych Photo Sculpture 2023Paracord Rope, Silkscreen Frames35mm silver Gelatin Prints
As a seer, these materials at hand became the components that would help resolve my dilemma in presenting my vertical photo works. I have amassed an amount of silkscreens that no longer serve a purpose, until now. In the rasquache tradition the frames significantly hold the images nested between suspended plexiglass-glass creating shadowplay with the nets.
My earliest connection with nets happened eleven years ago aboard a sea vessel as a videographer documenting fisherman. I was also not prepared for seasickness, the fisherman insisted that I keep my mind off the sea by helping reconstruct a fishline net. My mentor Sara Siestreem (Hanish-Coo) refers to this as The Medicine needed to get through the situations at hand. In honoring these lesson, I place nets within a relational context of my work.
The Bommelyn family of Tolowa Di-nee' keep the traditional practice of drying Smelt Fish, in the tradition of their ancestors methods. Families take turns protecting the stock from the giant winged pelicans who also provide an indication that the fish are present. As the pelicans amass near shore this provides a clue too begin harvesting.
Like the webs created by spiders and the nets made for use by fisherman types, these objects are bonded together through intergenerational exchanges in knowledge and practice.