Layers with Impossible Project PX680 and PX600

When I began working on my SX-70 constructions in the early seventies collage was one of my main interests. Over a decade before Photoshop was born I was always looking for ways to combine images and images with paint. In returning to these techniques with the new Impossible films I cannot turn back the clock on my knowledge of Photoshop and return to those blissful days. As I always did with my images in the Polaroid days, I try to throw nothing away. Test exposures can become your best pieces if you combine them with the right elements. Two of these three images were overexposed and would not really work well with painting. While the dyes are thin, the frame contains an image structure as well as interesting textures that come from taking the film unit apart. Full size collage elements are added and glued in from behind with acrylic gel medium. In some instances a bit of paint is applied first to render some areas opaque or only semi transparent. The layering effect looks as if it is straight out of my Photoshop imagery and I imagine my digital collages certain influence these. I don’t think they would have quite turned out this way thirty years ago.