As an ode to the place she loved and lived close-by for the first years of her life, photographer Brigette Bloom started the project 'Float on'. She made pictures of the place in the desert were she wondered around everyday to walk her dog. When it felt like her desolated, secret spot had been found by other people, she knew it was time to 'float on' and find a new place. After saying goodbye with this project, she moved from the desert to the ocean.
Special about the photo's is the preparation of the film before they where taken.
First she pees in a cup, put's the film in and let it soak for a few hours (four in this case). After that she rinses the film and lets it dry for over a week before she runs it through the camera and snaps away as usual. Because of this process, the emulsion on top of the film gets damaged and shows another effect every time you try it.
Of course this is not everyone's cup of tea. When she placed the pictures online on her blog, a lot of reactions followed. Bloom: “I found it very funny and interesting because when the feature started getting out on the Internet, I had people who were so disgusted by it. And then hours later, I received messages from people saying how inspiring it is. The photos didn’t change, just people’s perceptions."
The soaks all started as an accident by washing a pair of jeans with a roll of film still in her pockets. Doubting if she should trow it away, she decided not to, shot some pictures and loved the results. From then on, the experimenting started. Her series “Coyote Spit”, “The Warmest Sun”, “Born Into Beets”, “The Air Links Us”, and “Strange Fruit” were also done using different kinds of soaks such as milk and spit.
Want to see more pictures of this project or other works of Bloom? This is a link to her website.