Vincent Serbin
Vincent Serbin
In 1991, I began to cut and tear my negatives in an effort to fashion a unique visual style and explore the various concepts related to collage imagery. My exploration was influenced by reading texts of Post-Modern theory which, suggests that every event is a hybrid of the previous one and possesses unpredictable mutations, vague boundaries and complex overlapping elements of a cut and paste nature. I associate my technique of the "negative collage", with the excesses of modernism that produced the Post-Modern condition.
I photograph my subjects with traditional black and white film in a 4X5 camera. I cut and tear my negatives and distress them in various ways by scratching, sanding and writing upon them. The pieces are held together with cellophane tape which also acts as a compositional element. I then make silver gelatin prints directly from the original construction and uniquely tone each print with sepia and selenium toners. I use the highest quality fiber based papers and each print is archivally processed for maximum longevity.