Statement
In my garden, I see the morning light in a dewdrop. The single last seed on a dandelion. A bug perched on a blade of grass. The furry little hands of a squirrel exploring me for a peanut. It is these sublime moments that catch my attention. My digital camera is usually handy. I do not want to miss that pollen-covered wild bee in the Agastache blossom.

It starts with a digital photograph. From there, it becomes an inkjet negative, and eventually a Ziatype print.

Why Ziatype? Ziatype is an alternative process by which the photographic emulsion is mixed individually for each image, and brushed onto a piece of – in this case – watercolor paper. The negative is sandwiched on top, placed in a printing frame and exposed to UV light. The Ziatype process leans on similar processes that are over 100 years old. To me, it carries with it the awe and mysteriousness of early photography, the intimacy of the moment, and a dreaminess that gives me a break from the hustle of everyday life. It is hands-on, real and unique in a way that the most perfect digitally printed color image can never be.

Bio
Silke Hase is a German–born photographer who has lived in Boston for 24 years.

She gathered her first darkroom experience in an extracurricular photography workshop in high school in Germany. To build onto her early self-taught technique she began a more formal training at the New England School of Photography in Boston taking workshops for several years. She studied historic and alternative processes in workshops with Jill Enfield (Wet Plate Collodion), Michelle Rogers (Wet Plate Collodion), and Anne Eder (Ziatype).

Hase’s work reflects a diversity of subjects in a variety of formats and photographic processes.

Hase’s work has appeared in a number of solo and group shows in Europe and the United States, and can be found in a few private collections. Her photos have been published in various magazines and other publications such as ANTILISPEIS, Open to Interpretation, Backstage, F-Stop, and Shots.

Her work has been exhibited in many acclaimed international juried toy camera shows, like the Krappy Kamera (SOHO PHOTO Gallery, New York, NY – 2013, 2011, 2010), The Somerville Toy Camera Fest (Somerville, MA – 2015, 2014, 2013), Plastic Fantastic (Lightbox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR – 2015, 2014), and the Annual International Plastic Camera Show (RAYKO Photo Center, San Francisco, CA – 2013)

Hase won First Prize in the Black & White Classic at the Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, MA in 2009 and had a piece in the Traveling Exhibition Perceptions (Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece in 2011).