It is immediately apparent that the photographs of Jan Cook look to be something born out of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and indeed after reading the artist statement about her body of work, Fugue: A Dreamlike State, we know this to be precisely what she was going for all along. These are images in her mind's eye brought into physical manifestation, executed with surreal and imaginative effect. The photographs in this collection are created from a process known as chromoskedasic painting, a mouthful to be sure, as a challenging process that yields results well-suited for a series such as this. Magical realism has its roots in literature, so there's a sound investment to be found in her lush aesthetic.

Cook's life has included an impressive and eclectic work and residence resumé that nurtured her love of the photographic art form. Growing up in Seattle, Washington, and spending a year as an exchange student in southeastern Mexico, she later earned her BFA at the University of Washington. After college, she returned to Mexico to become a staff photographer for the Cultural Institute of Tabasco. Following a return to Seattle, Cook and two friends opened an art gallery of their own, creating a space for the artistic community to come together and enjoy the collaborative experience that came with it. While the gallery life continued, she also began working in the local motion picture industry as a still photographer, grip, and electrician. Following thirteen years in the film industry brought her to Dale Chihuly, photographing the work and installations of the famed American glass artist. Recent years find Cook married, raising a son, and working as a fine art photographer in Portland, Oregon, as part of the thriving photographic community found there.

Created between 2008-2017, Fugue; A Dreamlike State was inspired by the picture books read to her son when he was small. This piqued an interest in how the same themes arise and re-occur across different cultures and places in stories and folklore. According to Cook, "Visually, I am interested in pushing the boundary between where the photographic image begins and ends. I find something about the ambiguity that is created by altering a photo to be really intriguing and interesting. I have made a lot of 'straight' photos, but I don't consider them the same…it is almost like they aren't done yet. They are missing something."

Her earliest forays into the darkroom had her manipulating her Hasselblad made photographs immediately. Hand coloring black and white prints and painting on color negatives came from an interest in combining painting and photography in different ways. Finding it necessary to change or add to her photographs, Cook has experimented and enjoyed processes that include hand coloring, collage, encaustic, printing from painted paper negatives, and of course, chromoskedasic painting.

Being that the chromoskedasic painting technique is a bit more obscure and unique than many, we feel it best for Jan Cook to describe her methods and the process itself from her own words:

"My images are completely analog. I shoot film and print them in a traditional black and white darkroom. In this body of work, I use chromoskedasic painting to produce unique gelatin silver prints. The photographs are manipulated with chemistry during the development process. This creates a range of subtle colors as well as a silvering out of the photographic paper. The process can be unpredictable and difficult to control as you can't see the effects of the chemistry until after the marks develop. It does not allow for the same kind of detail as traditional painting. 

It is an unusual process. You develop the print and then turn on the light and paint on the print with chemistry. There are variables due to the order in which I use the chemistry, the amount of light, the temperature, and the time I allow it all to work. 

Chromoskedasic means light scattering in Greek. The process changes the particle size of the silver particles in the photo paper with chemistry and light. The size of the silver particles affects the way light is scattered and thus the wavelength of the light and the color we see with our eyes. If we see red, the particle size is different than the particle size that makes yellow (35-65 nanometers for red as opposed to 10-30 nanometers for yellow). The particle size is different from the particle size in a normal B&W print. Ordinarily, the particles absorb light when exposed and create blacks. The whites are areas that are not exposed to light and wash away. Chromoskedasic paintings are stable. The images and colors don't change after they are fixed. The process was invented by Dominic Man-Kit Lam in 1980. He wrote about it in Scientific American in 1991. The chemistry is based on the old products that Kodak made for Ektamatic B&W print processors. I learned this process from Christina Z Anderson. She is the author of several books on alt process."

As we've often stated with work this deep and rich, these reproductions are merely a starting point for anyone interested in this type of work. For an authentic experience, one needs to venture out and experience these photographs in person to realize their beauty and tone fully. The magical concept of the work is one thing, but it the magical effect that these prints have on the neurons firing at full capacity in your cerebral matter is another. My last viewing of this series was in 2015, and I still remember them vividly. So start here and then move into the real world and reach out to Jan Cook to see them for yourself. You might even try the process yourself and apply it to some ideas of your own. Your analog brain will thank you.

GALLERY

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jan Cook is a visual artist who works with photo-based imagery, combining traditional processes in unconventional ways. Her work is a combination of reality and fabrication, a type of magic realism where she explores believability in the photographic image and the enigma of altered photographs. 

She has exhibited in the US and Mexico. Recent shows include Roll-Up Gallery in Portland Oregon and Gallery 1/1 in Seattle. In the last few years, she has been published in Fraction Magazine and Diffusion Magazine. In 2017 she received a Regional Arts and Culture Council Professional Development Grant and was a Critical Mass finalist. In 2020 her work was acquired by the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture for The Seattle Portable Works Collection.

Jan received her BFA in photography from the University of Washington. She studied and worked in Mexico for two years and that experience had a big influence on her imagery. She currently resides in Portland Oregon. You can see more of her work at www.jancook.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Kirchoff is a photographic artist, independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. He has been a juror for Photolucida’s Critical Mass, and has reviewed portfolios for the Los Angeles Center of Photography’s Exposure Reviews, PhotoNOLA, and CENTER’s Review Santa Fe. Michael has been a contributing writer for Lenscratch, Light Leaked, and Don’t Take Pictures magazine. In addition, he spent ten years (2006-2016) on the Board of the American Photographic Artists in Los Angeles (APA/LA), producing artist lectures, as well as business and inspirational events for the community. Currently, he is also Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine, Founding Editor for the online photographer interview website, Catalyst: Interviews, and a Contributing Editor for the column, Traverse, at One Twelve Publishing. Previously, Michael spent over four years as Editor at BLUR Magazine.

 Connect with Michael Kirchoff on his Website and Instagram!

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