Photo series «Poorly Developed and Scratched Film, ” 1990

We have already discussed how the artist Shaburov began photographing in his pursuit of nature through photography:

the same little duck;

the wall every half hour;

without focusing;

in the dark;

and finally—for the ultimate purity of the experiment—capturing fleeting moments without removing the lens cap.

It seemed as if nothing was recorded on the film, but no—there remained moments in time that would never be repeated.

But that is only half the story.

The work itself is more important than the initial idea and must make an impact on its own.

Therefore, Shaburov did not develop the film very well so that his black photographs visually resembled a night sky filled with an endless number of barely discernible details.

Then, to complete the project, he took this further—he shot two more rolls of film, developing them poorly and scratching them to create abstract photographic canvases.

Also: standard photographic film in the USSR had 36 frames. That is why all of Shaburov’s series consisted of 36 prints.

However, in this specific case, the film was technical photographic film, which the Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, where Shaburov worked, purchased in large spools via wire transfer. And he wound as much as would fit onto the reel.