Trying To Make It Real Part 1 & 2: Bruno V. Roels

All prints have value: instead of fussing over making the perfect gelatin silver print, for example, Bruno V. Roels realised that all printed versions of an image have value, and he decided to not show that one perfect print, but all of them, in one composition. Some of his compositions consist of hundreds variations of one single negative, all printed in the dark room. Photography is a mimetic art, it imitates life. But Roels pushes it further: when printing variants of one image; he creates a mimetic feedback loop. He uses the iconic image of a palm tree to prove his point. All palm trees look alike, and as a symbol the plants are highly recognisable. Because palm trees are so widely recognisable, hes free to deconstruct his own notions of photography, while trying to get away from the tyranny of camera viewfinders and rectangular boxes of enlarging papers. Introduction for the book written by Simon Baker.

Text in English and Dutch.