For a number of years I have been using camera & scanner to capture textures & surfaces. Besides the oven pan, metal & glass surfaces, I also began collecting paper texture & surface patterns. Included in that group were old taped book covers, discarded packaging, & pages from old books & magazines. This led to what I referred to as textured text.

Along the way, I began experimenting with what I called Junk Mail Abstracts, cutting up junk mail into strips and rectangles, then reorganizing them on the scanner bed in a type of cubomania collage. These images evolved as I began digitally blending the textured text images with the junk mail pieces.

This stage of the experimenting began on my Dark Pines Photo blog. The image below is linked to one of my early posts in this category(the link opens in another tab).

After establishing the Implied Spaces blog, I began considering more typical collage layouts, at first creating loose composition that were photographed. These proved dissatisfying / frustrating because I could not always get the lighting to cooperate, especially if the layout was to large. As a consequence, I started producing the collages on the scanner bed as my main method.

The image above is a blend of photographed collages, scanned collages & a junk mail abstract that was created by combining a photograph with scanned junk mail. The next image is a scanned collage that was then further modified using photo software (Paintshop Pro).

The next step in this development was when I happened to use some of daughter’s writing. My daughter is a Downs person, & her writing has some fascinating qualities. Some of it, I eventually realized, was classic asemic writing.

This realization led me to reconsider my output. My textured text & junk mail abstracts were deconstructed text, a form of asemic writing. With that new understanding, I turned to producing pieces emphasizing asemic text, since it fitted so well with the concept of implied spaces. The text contains some of the codes & conventions of writing/typography, but there are blanks, implied space. The reader/viewer must fill in the missing context with their own associations & interpretation – bringing personal meaning to the text/composition.

What follows is a step by step of my process; fellow blogger, Gaston Bessette, Photographie – juditon, had inquired about my methods & encouraged me to do a post on the topic.

To begin with, my desk top & room is a cacophony of paper pieces & other elements to be scanned/photographed.