Variations
Variations centers on a single photographic image, the project unfolds through a series of photo etching prints in various sizes and a publication of 285 unique copies. It explores photography as a medium in constant flux, reimagining it through the processes of printmaking and bookmaking, with each print or publication acting as a unique iteration of an ever-changing image.
The explorations delves into the mutability of memory, where each reproduction distorts and reshapes the original. Through repeated manual manipulation and layering, the image shifts, distorts, and expands, offers a unique perspective that reflects the fluidity of memory and the passage of time, where no image remains static.
To look at a thousand images a thousand times through one image. To see it again and again until it is no longer the image. To recall memories repeatedly until they become something new.
The publication centers around one single image. Every copy is unique in its composition; every page is different from the next.
Originating from the engraving imprint materials of the image, the scans capture remnants of the printing process.
These pieces of paper, utilized to ensure clean prints, are essentially leftovers from the engraving printing process. Through a myriad of processes and materials, the original photographic image undergoes transformation. The variations are the result of analog reproduction techniques, such as photo engraving and offset printing.
The imprints from the image and etching plate are transformed into six offset plates. Editing, designing, printing, reprinting, folding, and assembling the pages in shifting orders contributes to a multitude of variations, resulting in an edtion of 285 individual publications.
A publication by Sophia J. Xu
Edit, design and offset intervention in collaboration with Cathy Hu ISBN 9789090386195
order available