DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Unique Photography Project Takes ‘Self Portrait’ To All New Levels

Jul 30, 2014 by Tiffany Mueller 6 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

In a world that is so obsessed with selfies,  it’s hard to stand out from the crowd, but the unusual technique adopted by American photographer, Brigette Bloom, may just steal the show. Bloom, an advocate for film photography, soaks rolls of film in her own urine before exposing it. Yes, you read that correctly, she pees on unprocessed film.

bloom9

Bloom uses a variety of techniques to process her film including steeping it in her own urine.

Bloom discovered the quirky technique while experimenting with various film soaking procedures. She also frequently steeps her film with different liquids such as lemon juice, soap water, and wine  to see create interesting artifacts in the emulsions, which are visible only once the film has been processed. Soaking the film in urine, however, she says makes her portraits more personal since her very own DNA helped to create the finished look.

bloom7

A frequent traveler, Blooms self portraits are taken in locations all over the world.

After soaking a roll of film in it’s canister, she rinses the urine from the roll and allows the film to dry for about a week before loading it into her camera. Bloom hopes to one day have her own darkroom where she can expand her experiments, but say in the meantime she will stick with more affordable ways to add interesting effects to her film–including using urine which costs the fine art photographer absolutely nothing.

bloom1

The deterioration caused by the urine is different on each photograph Bloom creates.

One observation Bloom has made about the photos she treats with urine is how unpredictable in nature the results tend to be. Depending on what she has been eating in the days surrounding the days she collects the urine, the film’s emulsions will deteriorate in different ways providing an incalculable amount of variations. That may seem quite daunting to some, but, in a way, it’s also part of the charm. Part of the reason artists like Bloom still shoot film.

bloom8

Bloom layers exposures in camera using double exposure techniques.

When Bloom first tried the technique, she admits that she wasn’t sure what was going to happen and that was okay with her. She had no expectations as she worked through the process, but, needless to say, she was delighted with the results and kept at it, experimenting more and more until she eventually amassed quite a collection of the pee soaked photos.

bloom3

The color shift that results from the urine can sometimes give the photos a surreal quality others have more prominent and dramatic effects.

Browsing through Blooms portfolio and Instagram, you may bump into some NSFW stuff. Bloom isn’t bashful when it comes to posting nude self portraits as way to suggest that the human form is a work of art itself. In a recent interview with The Lab Magazine Bloom is cited saying:

“I do a lot of self-portraits, mostly because I’m always around! I think the female form is so beautiful. Actually, I think every form in its natural state is beautiful. And I want to celebrate that! It saddens me that as a culture we’ve become brainwashed to the point that people are actually ashamed of their own bodies…I’m not saying that everybody should be going around taking nude photos, but more that we should accept and embrace the bodies we’ve been given.”

[Brigette Bloom via The Lab Magazine and Feature Shoot]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Photographer takes unique self-portraits with an awe-inspiring erupting Icelandic volcano 8 Levels of Photographer Portrayed as A Video Game Levels 6 1/2 Year Self Portrait Project Documents The Photographer’s Life Living A With Mental Illness Check Out The Awesome Makeup In This Epic Self Portrait Project: 31 Days Of Halloween

Filed Under: news Tagged With: analog film, creative process, film, film camera, fine art photography, Nikon, nsfw, polaroid, Projects

Tiffany Mueller: from diyphotography.net

About Tiffany Mueller

Tiffany Mueller is a photographer based in Hawi, Hawaii. You can follow her Twitter here and her personal life here.

« See How To Stabilize Your DJI Phantom Footage With A $10 Rig
Wedding Photographer Loses Over 2000 Photos After Car Was Broken Into – What Would You Do? »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy