I recently ran across a short, but thought-provoking, article by Jerry Uelsmann from the late 1960s that is definitely worth revisiting after half a century (www.uelsmann.net/_img/writing/post-visualization.pdf). In it, Uelsmann talks about the post-visualization of images -- essentially, the process of re-visualizing the final image at any point in the artist's workflow.
The so-called money quote:
"It is my conviction that the darkroom is capable of being, in the truest sense, a visual research lab; a place for discovery, observation, and meditation. To date, but a few venturesome souls have tentatively explored the darkroom world of the camera-less image, the negative sandwich, multiple printings, the limited tonal scale, et cetera. Let us not be afraid to allow for post-visualization. By post-visualization I refer to the willingness on the part of the photographer to re-visualize the final image at any point in the entire photographic process. Let us not delude ourselves by the seemingly scientific nature of the darkroom ritual; it has been and always be a form of alchemy."
I especially like the juxtaposition here of the concepts of research and alchemy, which suggests infinite possibility.
Below is an example of a post-visualized image created by sandwiching two 35mm negatives (one color and the other B/W) in the same holder and digitizing the montage on a flatbed scanner.
The other side of the post-visualization coin of course is pre-visualization. It is usually presented as the ability to visualize the final image prior to pressing the shutter button. The second example is an in-camera double exposure. The process of creating it entailed trying to line up the two images mentally. Interestingly, the alignment was off by about the same angle for each exposure!
