~35,000 slides ranging from 1940-1990, artist Sheldrick in centre.
Through the study of primary source material, Empire explores the themes of vernacular photography, social life, technology, propaganda, colonialism & the use of history as material to be manipulated for individual purpose.
Philadelphia & Atlantic City 1952, tray 7 (Davidson Glass Slides), loupe & cleaning brush on lightbox.
We procured, cleaned & classified over 30,000 slides of vernacular 35mm colour film photography captured between 1940-1990
We procured, cleaned & classified over 30,000 slides of vernacular colour film photography captured between 1940-1990.
Selection medium format slides (est 1970 Israel & Paris)
The collection is built on top of a library of privately collected colour film slides (~35,000 slides), over 1200 separate lots. We began procurement of original 35mm & 120mm film lots from various periods & places in time through estate sales, eBay & collectors. The majority of lots are photographs of an individual's personal life experiences, such as holidays, special events, work and family.
Left: 35mm Transparency Slides - Kennedy Space Center / Saturn V
Right: Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin, Germany. 1970
Film lots within the archive range from post WW2 Berlin 1952, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, whale hunting in Iceland 1962, the Norwegian Winter Olympics in 1952, Car bombings in London during Thatcher period and missionaries travels to uncontacted tribes such as Papua New Guinea.
Both: Korea, Cheonan, Korean War, 8th US Army Soldier's. c1952
The body of film collected covers an expansive overview of historical primary reference material across every continent, many countries and cultures, with alot of niche unknown & known events and rare places to be captured at the time.
Left: Iceland Whale Hunt 1966
Right: New Guinea Mission 1970's
The body of work is then created by a fine-tuning of Stable Diffusion and style transferring the slides into each other.
Workstation. Full workflow cleaning, scanning, rendering
Example of two 35mm film scans that are style transferred into each other to create the final render
The rendering is selectively done throughout the day by mixing entire lots with each other or single stills with each other in a very targeted manner & also left to randomize.
Ultimately Empire is about photography and how closely tied humans are to images, Still images are tied to ideas, photography is embedded in modern humanity in almost every way as photographs remain as the only physical representation of most humans after they die. It is the language that every human being in the world can intrinsically understand.