The Island of Rota

Translated from French, ‘cliché-verre’ means glass picture. The 19th century French painters Corot, Millet, Daubigny and others, used this method of making pictures, which involves creating a hand made negative. These artists took pieces of flat glass, smoked them with a lit candle, and drew images in the soot-covered surface with a sharp pointed instrument. Then they would place the glass over a sheet of photographic paper and expose it to light. When light passes through the clear parts of the glass that is scratched, it produces a line drawing in black on a white background. Contact prints made from these negatives have a wonderful sense of belonging to the realms of both drawing and photography.

I made this body of cliche-verres about ferns and cycads for a limited edition publication for The Museum of Modern Art organized by May Castleberry, editor of Contemporary Editions for the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art, featuring the writing of Oliver Sacks and the design of Ted Muehling. The book entitled “The Island of Rota” was published in the fall of 2010.  Read more about this book here, and see pictures of it here.