069
The Colour Narrative, Without Words
Gianni Rodari, in his book The Grammar of Fantasy, explained that one of the foundations of imagination was the fusion of two different concepts to create something new—what he called the “fantastic binomial” (1).
Youth is a time of change, filled with a desire to experiment and discover new things. Even more so when, for some of us, this vital awakening (2) coincided with the fall of a dictatorship. After so much greyness, there was a longing to experiment with colour. For example, I explored visual narrative techniques by embedding photographs within photographs or using infrared film (3) to alter the natural colours of vegetation.
I also ventured into visual poetry, combining photography and photograms (4), placing opaque comic speech bubbles over the photographic paper during the printing process. The lighter-toned mark that remained was then hand-painted with coloured aniline dyes. Additionally, I experimented with visual sequencing, creating links between photography and comics by cutting out photographs and arranging them into a sheet composition (5). In this example, the upper part of the composition has been cropped, and the faces have been pixelated to preserve image rights (6).
References
Texts
- 1. Rodari, G. (2008) Gramàtica de la Fantasia: Introducció a l’art d’inventar històries. Barcelona: Edicions 62, S.A. (Títol original: La grammatica della fantasia) Capítol “El binòmic fantàstic”. P. 25-29.
- 2. 011 La meva generació / My generation
- 3. Stroebel L.; Zakia R. (1993) Encyclopedia of Photography.Third Edition. Boston, London: Focal Press. P. 389-390.
“Infrared photography is of interest to the amateur and commercial photographer and to scientists and technologists because it produces images that are not possible with conventional photographic films”.
- 4. 066 Ciencia i tecnologia en l’abstracció visual / Science and technology in visual abstraction
- 5. 019 El còmic I el signe icònic / The comic and the iconic sign
- 6. 018 Els drets d’imatge /Image rights
Images
- Example of concept photography and surreal colours. Portrait of Dolors, looking at some of her portraits taken with black and white polaroids. Colour slide was used to capture the infrared wavelengths.
Toni Bover. Experiments in colors. The late 1970s.
- Example of a black and white photograph painted with coloured anilines. Black cardboard, cut out with the outline of a comic book balloon, was used to lighten the area to be painted.
Toni Bover. Experiments in colors. The late 1970s.
- Example of a comic with a photograph. In this exhibition, the theme was LSD. A couple and an interior space were sought that complied with the aesthetics of the period. The black and white model was found in the archive and in one of the photographs, there were some underexposed areas in the form of clouds. The colour has been digitally added to recall the original idea.
Toni Bover. Experiments in colors. The late 1970s.