30/04/2020
”Watermark"
In 2015, Yuji Hamada began to think about the pollution of seawater by plastic, upon learning that some particles are so small they are invisible to the human eye.
Inspired by Talbot, a father figure to photography, Hamada decided to collect seawater from the Tokyo Bay in order to make his own salt-prints. The salt-print was invented in the nineteenth century by the British scientist Henry Fox Talbot, and its recipe consists of an application of saltwater and silver nitrate on paper which make a light-sensitive emulation.
Almost two centuries after Talbot’s invention, Hamada’s salt-prints consist of seawater and plastic. The process can be described as follows: sheets of paper are infused with Tokyo Bay water and silver nitrate, then layers of plastic wrap are placed over the paper and exposed to light. The result is an image of flowing water. What appears as watermarks are impressions of plastic wrap, inseparably planted within an emulsion of seawater. Finally, a pleasant-scented layer of beeswax with dried lavender is applied as an organic surface seal to protect the image from material deterioration.
Yuji Hamada “Watermark #09, 2019 From the series “Watermark", Salt print, 408x310mm, Printed in 2020, Unique edition, Signed on verso, $4.000
#濱田祐史
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https://www.pgi.ac/artists/5620/
Yuji Hamada
Paris Photo NY 2020.
The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD)
