Being in the Land (Winter River)
- Photopolymer Gravure on Hahnemuhle Copperplate
- 12 x 16 in
- Robyn Moore
This image began by photographing myself moving underneath a silver emergency blanket during very long exposures. I edit the photograph digitally to produce a transparency that I use to create a photopolymer gravure plate, which I ink in an intaglio-style method and print on a traditional etching press.
The marks I make on the plate—created through a overly vigorous wash-out
process—engenders a sense of the land as vulnerable, aged, distressed, and intractably mysterious—haunted by its own past and part of a present where its ecological stability is continuously threatened by the actions (or inaction) of humans. I hope the purposefully damaged plate encourages viewers to feel the image even more than they might “see” the image.
The river in this image is the Shenandoah river near Front Royal, VA. This is another river that has figured prominently in my life since I was very young.