This is an edited scan of a Pierrot doll that I was given as a child in the 80's. Pierrot had a renaissance during this time, in keeping with the New Romantic wave where make up, frills and androgeny were key elements. Whilst I imagine I would've thought it a fairly dud present, I did nonetheless keep it in my small box of childhood memorabila. There is afterall something enchanting about Pierrot... TBC

Scanning with a dark background has been a personal preference so far because of the way it isolates and highlights the object. This along with the shallow depth of field of the scanner, produces a lovely ethereal effect.

Scanner art came to my attention some years ago after seeing a couple of photography exhibitions in Brighton. 

I particularly loved artwork by Denis Doran (http://www.cranekalmanbrighton.com/exhibitions/found) and it was seeing his work that sparked my initial interest. His 'Common Ground' exhibition uses scans of allotment land combined with other photographic elements to create beautiful composite images.

At the time the word scanning was somehow scary and seemed to paralyse my technophobe mind. It turns out it is actually a very simple process involving a flatbed scanner and whatever you want to try scanning. However it does produce hit or miss results. I've been using my old but trusty Lexmark 3 in 1 and then editing in photoshop afterwards, but newer models of flatbed scanners will have more capabilities.

It can take some patience obtaining the perfect arrangement, and sometimes things just don't translate well when scanned (this is the hit or miss part). Experimentation is the best way to find out what works and to trigger the imagination.

For more information on how to go about it and to see work by other scannography artists, take a look at  http://www.scannography.org .

Two more floral experiments by myself... 

Clare x

I thought it about time to make use of my piece of cyberspace and start the new year with a photo blog (as with all New Year intentions, let's see how long it lasts!).

At the end of last year I started experimenting with scanner art, sometimes known as scanography or scantography (a bit more sparse!). So my first offerings will be the results of this scanfoolery.

Happy New Year!

Clare x

Velveteen 1

Velveteen 2

Velveteen 3