Double Exposure -- Four Times As Difficult?

Most of my double exposures don't work out all that spectacularly well, like the rest of my photographs, I suppose. The two images just don't mesh for some reason. Are the chances of success twice as poor? Four times? Regardless, I really enjoyed the way this little experiment turned out, mainly because it is kind of hard to tell that it is actually a double exposure. The only adjustment was a sepia tone.

Hump Day Experiment: Multiple Exposure

The first exposure was of the orchids and the second was an out of focus image of specular highlights. It is fun to create these multiple exposures in camera, but two images can be combined in software, too. These images were captured in monochrome, so color was added in post, just as a further experiment. 

Start Anywhere

Here is a quick snapshot of me thumbing through my book of photographs by Richard Pousette-Dart. The artist was particularly fond of using the double exposure for portraits, as in this photograph of Betty Parsons made in 1948 illustrates. Oh, and opening up the current edition of Aperture magazine, I see an example of double exposure in the work of Duane Michals.

 
Learn how to take multiple exposures on your camera or create them in software. "Start anywhere", as John Cage said. If you don't like the results you get, practice more or move on. 

Tasting notes: Olympus E-500 camera with it's Kodak CCD sensor and the 35 mm macro lens.

Happy accidents / thoughtful play

Confession: as happens from time to time, I've fallen a bit behind on my film developing duties, and have been doing my best to get caught up. As a result, I've generated quite a pile of disorganized and unscanned negatives. As I was getting things sorted out on the light table just now, two strips of negatives happened to overlap each other in just the right way, and an accidental double exposure caught my attention. So I scanned in the negative sandwich, along with a few other images that matched up in interesting ways. What is unexpected is how the tonality of the scanned files is a bit different than with an in-camera double exposure. I enjoy the habit of going into the studio every day and just working, even if I don't know where I am going at first. Thoughtful play can lead to discovery and growth. 

Visual research...

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.

That's so random...

Adding a dash of randomness into your process of making photographs can sometimes lead to interesting outcomes (or not, failure is possible, too). Perhaps you will discover a new way of working, gain deeper insight into why you prefer a particular subject, or find new compositional relationships. One time honored way to do this is to experiment with double/multiple exposures.

This photograph was taken a long time ago on a trip down the Natchez Trace from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS. I found this image in my archive, but candidly, have absolutely no memory of making this frame. Upon reflection, and after a bit of head scratching, I am beginning to suspect that it was, in fact, made by my wife! Which brings up the additional important point that collaboration with a friend or partner is another great way to introduce randomness into your process.