Dafna Talmor is an artist living and working in London.
Episode 52: Dafna Talmor is an artist based in London. She has a upcoming publication with FW:Books entitled Constructed Landscapes. The book will be available in the autumn Dafna was kind enough to send me a digital copy ahead of our conversation.
Untitled (HA-1212-1), 2014 C-type handprint made from 2 collaged negatives, 24” x 34.5”
I had been aware of Dafna’s work for the past couple of years. I remember seeing installation photographs of her work on display at the Sid Motion Gallery in London. The images appealed to me from afar the first time that I came across them in their burnt umbra and azure blues of abstraction. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking at when I first saw the images. I could see the “bleed” of a cut analogue negative printed in the darkroom and the rusty coloration that halos the edges of the images. The images felt rough, a bit violent and beautifully executed.
C-type handprint made from 5 collaged negatives, 25” x 40”
As I delved further into Dafna’s work, I could see a number of fascinating posts about her process. The work was oddly clinical given the capacity for the destroyed negatives to suggest otherwise. I was able to see Dafna’s notes on her prints, which in an odd way reminded me of some of Goethe’s notes on color. It was a leap for sure, but there was something inherently interesting in seeing her handwriting adorning the color negatives that she was working on. There was something mathematical and precise amongst the chaos that beckoned further investigation.
Untitled (GI –191919191919-1), 2019 C-type handprint made from 6 negatives, 24” x 26.6
In our conversation, we spoke about a number of things from Dafna’s upbringing between Israel and Venezuela to how the notion of landscape in photography is often engendered as a male pursuit. Dafna kindly fielded my inquiry about the work and was able to answer questions about her forthcoming book. I mentioned in the conversation that the book is honest in its delivery and for that reason and the obvious intelligence she has put into it, it will likely be on my end of year list. I stand by that reasoning and hope you get to check out another future Hans Gremmen design classic with Constructed Landscapes.
