Contemporary Artist Gerardo Stübing is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Mordancage’. To see Gerardo’s body of work, click on any image.

The main objective of my work is to show the beauty and harmony of Nature (“Natura naturata” sensu Spinoza) in order to sensitize society towards the respect that Nature deserves. Starting from this base, I denounce through showing the visual beauty of nature’s creations, the problems that threaten and compromise our environment and survival.

Climate change and loss of biodiversity are undoubtedly one of the main problems that we will have to face in the 21st century. The chemical degradation process to which the initial negatives are subjected generates an aesthetic that is reminiscent of the appearance of plants subjected to prolonged periods of stress due to lack of water before dying. Likewise, in those cases in which the composition of the image includes the environment, there is also a cracked structure that is reminiscent of soils subjected to prolonged droughts. On the other hand, the predominant yellowish and somewhat reddish tones, a consequence of both the physical and digital treatment to which the negatives and prints are subjected, transmit a sensation of heat in accordance with this desertification process.

In this series, the following processes are combined: obtaining analog images in black and white, mordancage of negatives, digital treatment to transform the images into CMYK color and manual printing by means of transfer of toner with solvent and argyrotype process.

The images presented are photographs of the handprints, although the images could be shown from the scanned negatives, the result is very different, since the structure of the fiber of the paper and the tonal range of the argyrotype give a special touch of warmth and originality.