„The Medicine Show“ is more than just a series of photographs; it is a performance art project created in Greensboro, North Carolina, in March 2022. A spiral, named the „Greensboro Spiral“, was laid out over Greensboro and the surrounding area, with the outermost point in the industrial town of High Point and a central point in the city centre. There were shooting locations at five points of the spiral in between. The works were brought to life as a performance using a U-Haul vehicle specially equipped for art, called „The Art Truck“. Over the seven days of the project, I delivered each day’s output to the Greensboro Project Space in downtown Greensboro and installed it. The project was a collaboration with the Fine Arts Department of Greensboro College of Art; their students created their own photographs based on the project’s idea and installed them along with my photos at the exhibition.
Cyanotype photographs: the process
These images are not mere photographs but a testament to the meticulous artistry of the cyanotype process, which traces its origins back to 1842. A solution of photosensitive iron salts is delicately painted upon watercolour paper. Once dry, a digital negative is carefully sandwiched with the paper and illuminated with ultraviolet light. The resulting blue image is a cyanotype photograph, a unique and captivating art form. I then lightly bleached the image before toning it in tannic acid, adding depth and character to the composition with darker iron grey and lighter reddish brown hues.
