I realize that I have severely neglected this blog and I’m sorry. Finals have a way of taking over my life. Apologies aside, let me say that the Lightbulb Project has significantly evolved. Later today I will be posting a sneak peek my progress. Stay tuned!
About
This work is a result from being entirely too exhausted from latent anxiety. Eight months had elapsed since a traumatic weekend left me a constant state of delicacy. I wanted nothing more than to move forward. As I began to actively remember the days' events, I noted that I was only able to recall moments of extreme emotion and I started to record them. Quickly, I became fascinated by the relationship between memory and emotion.
To say the least, I am rather bored by the conventional way to make photographs, but I find myself still enamored by photography. My current solution is to build images out of glass bulbs and archival ink.
I must admit that this method of image making is testing my patience. There are many moments that make me feel this project is going nowhere, yet I still believe in my final vision. In order to satisfy my want for some faster result (and to show my professors that I'm actually working), I created this blog.
I am happy to share my progress with those who are curious. Enjoy!
To say the least, I am rather bored by the conventional way to make photographs, but I find myself still enamored by photography. My current solution is to build images out of glass bulbs and archival ink.
I must admit that this method of image making is testing my patience. There are many moments that make me feel this project is going nowhere, yet I still believe in my final vision. In order to satisfy my want for some faster result (and to show my professors that I'm actually working), I created this blog.
I am happy to share my progress with those who are curious. Enjoy!
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As many of you may know, tonight is Manifest! If you’re available, come check out the admirable works of my peers tonight between 4p.m. and 7p.m. in the B.F.A./B.A. Photography Exhibition located 1006 South Michigan.
Although it is not the Lightbulb Project, I do have work up in the show. However I do have enticing lightbulb-related promos:
Photograms of the stages of a lightbulb’s deconstruction are available at the gallery tonight! With a darkroom enlarger and my cellphone, I exposed sheets of photo paper to offer c-prints to those who are interested! There are roughly fifty available, each one different from the next.
See you tonight!
In attempt to help me eliminate time scraping the adhesive off the bulb, the creative minds of Brandon Blunden and Dan Green suggested that I soak the gunk in acid overnight. So here’s to that idea!
About a hundred more bulbs almost ready to go. I’m hung up on finding a more efficient way of getting the filaments out. With the old bulbs, I could just progressively crack away at the glass with needle-nose pliers, but these guys don’t chip as easily.
I’m trying to come up with easier methods of grinding down glass that doesn’t involve me buying a glass grinder. If you have any suggestions, please email me.
lauren.freeburg@gmail.com
Thank you!
Four hours of work and only sixty bulbs later, I have discovered that the bulbs I ordered online need to be handled much differently than the test ones I was working with in these past weeks. Too many casualties today. I am afraid that progress may slow down until I get used to these new lightbulbs.
Stay tuned!
This project has provided me with some obstacles. I will need 2,500 miniature lightbulbs, in other words $500 worth of bulbs to make it happen. Because she knows as well as I do that a student worker’s wage can only stretch so far, the kind-hearted Jennifer Keats has helped me create a web page for friendly donations.
Step one finished. A bulb is now ready for its ink.
About 2 months ago I decided that I wanted to make a photograph out of Epson ink and glass. After about 2 months of experiments, I discovered the best way to do this was to use lightbulbs.
It’s a tedious process, to put it lightly, and it begins like this.
