In the days when i maintained my own black-and-white photo lab it sometimes happened that after a long night i forgot the odd print in one of the trays full of chemicals.

When i returned to the lab the next morning (or after a couple of days, i have to confess) i found them and threw them away, but sometimes the chemicals and/or the light had worked some kind of magic on the prints. In this case i saved the pictures by fixing, watering and drying them. Sometimes i took a sponge and removed the fully soaked gelatine partially and sometimes i put the pictures in a sulphur toning bath. Some of the pictures i painted later with watercolors or added some gold or even spices to them.

Over the years i got a little collection of „chemical ladies“, some of which i scanned and put into this gallery.

For me they are the products of a chemical time machine, paintings made from silver and salt, accidents and time.