Artist Jess Landau turns the insides of eggshells into unlikely canvases for her delicate nude portraits.
Landau embarked on her unusual project as a way of coming to terms with a close friend’s suicide in November 2013, and discovered that the usual artistic avenues fell short in their ability to express her emotions.
“Because I was looking for a tactile outlet to explore my new curiosities through, I begun noticing fragile surfaces on which I could work. I felt that traditional materials–different papers, wood, etc,–were far too stable and concrete for this delicate situation,” she explained in an interview with The Huffington Post.
She used liquid emulsion, a liquid chemical that makes paper light-sensitive and allows images to be projected onto them through a darkroom printing process. Landau chose eggshells as the emulsion clings easily to their surface.
She first photographed her models using an old 35mm Minolta camera handed down from her brother, developed the images by hand in a wet lab and printed them using traditional darkroom methods, with a few exceptions.
She then applied several layers of emulsion evenly because of the curved shape of the eggshells. The time-consuming process was further complicated by the long exposure time needed due to the concavity of the shells.
“As the images are projected down into the eggshell, the light that enters the interior of the eggshell bounces around inside of it. If the walls of the eggshell were higher, less time was required to make the exposure.”
Landau said the process of creating the portraits was highly therapeutic, citing the beauty of their “clean white walls” and “broken edges.”
The subjects give off an air of vulnerability in their nakedness, while the fragile nature of the shells are a statement on the ephemerality of life.
Through her project, Landau hopes the portraits serve as reminders to treasure every moment.
View her works below.
[via The Huffington Post, images via Jess Landau]