Photographs from Caleb Charland’s series Biographs, 2009.
“These pictures began by accident. I was curious to see what would happen if I allowed bacteria to grow on the surface of film. I was interested in relinquishing the control of image making to a natural process…As I proceeded with the experiment, I was amazed to see what the bacteria were doing. The bacterial growth patterns were re-depositing the image particles, revealing a life cycle traced in silver…What began as a photograph had become a biograph, a trace of life, an index of an existence.”
— Caleb Charland, from “About Biographs”
