The main seven pieces of The Personal Injuries Archive are comprised of six stages: photographing, digital editing, print work, texture treatment, canvas preparation, and final placement. It all begins with digital photography. The wooden frames inside the white box create a setting for multiple frames with the body moving from pose to pose. The lighting is as flat and balanced as possible to create a matter-of-fact and archival feel.
The frames are then taken for digital editing. Everything is made as seamless and perfect as possible. This is where the bodies begin to deform dictated by the rather dancelike poses that are compiled in many frames.
After tedious editing the photography is printed several times with blow-ups of certain parts and multiple prints of certain other parts. These are then all put together with a collage technique on thick water color paper. This is the part where I break all that seamless digital photography apart.
After the collage is dry and complete it is taken for a tinting treatment which includes certain concoctions that liquefy the collages' print ink.
After the print is treated and brushed, it is glazed and ready to be attached to the canvas. Meanwhile the canvas is painted black with acrylic paint and treated to create texture.
After several coats of paint it is ready for the treated print to be attached along with the title and date tag which is part of a Finnish form letter from the 1960's that I found in an abandoned house one summer. The signature and date is behind the canvas and sealed to prevent from tampering.
With planning, sketching, building the wooden frames, and other processes taken to account the entire process takes from a week to two weeks per piece.