The Girl in the Glass: In search of a 19th century beauty.

There was a time, before the invention of photographic film, when glass plates were used as a medium in photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was coated on a glass plate, and when it was exposed to light when taking a picture, a chemical reaction created an impression on the coating. A ghostly impression, one could say. The purpose of this project was to restore to life a girl thus captured in glass.

People in some ancient cultures believed that photography would steal your soul. And even today, some still do. It is true that photography does have an element of magic to it, for it creates reproductions of realities, capturing them in film, or, more commonly today, digitally.

What looks like ordinary paint on a piece of glass is, in reality, an ancient emulsion hiding a treasure.

The glass plate in the above picture contains the image of a 19th century girl, which is revealed when the plate is exposed to light going through it. 

Injured  and aetheric, her apparition filled me with awe and wonder! I had to see her true image! 

Exposed to light, the glass reveals its secret...

 

I took a photograph of the plate, then inverted the negative, and there she was, for the first time in more than one hundred years, such a splendid and delicate girl, what a moment of pure joy!

The positive image of the girl.

Beautiful as she was, I could not bear the sight of the harm that time had inflicted upon her. Specially her face and head had sustained quite some damage, and seeing her like this made me sad. So I decided to give her back her dignity and beauty by doing some magic of my own.

I restored her image but not the total picture as a whole, leaving some of the damage and stains untouched which then became decorative. 

And here she is, in all her splendor and innocence: behold the beautiful Girl in the Glass! Welcome to the 21st century, sweetness!

Thanks for visiting and see you next time!

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