What is a Transfer Print?

In a transfer print the plate is created by printing files from a computer imaging program like Photoshop onto an acetate carrier sheet. For initial output I use an Epson 2400 with archival ink. After  the carrier sheet is sprayed with a solvent  the ink becomes liquified enough to transfer to paper or another surface through careful burnishing. Each paper takes the ink completely differently. Soft watercolor or printmaking papers may absorb the ink with a fair amount of predictability, while others react with magical surface qualities that have a life of their own. The effects range from the dry paper-texture of letterpress to a granulation similar to aquatint or the watery translucency of traditional monoprints.

It takes a great deal of repetition and attention to detail to pull one successful print. I have learned that timing, humidity, pressure, and subtle overprinting or vandalism of the same plate multiple times can all have an effect on the image and whether it succeeds. In many ways the moment of printing is like calligraphy in its exactitude, physicality and openness to the accidents of the moment.

I chose this medium for certain themes that seem best expressed with photographic imagery. I am still thinking a lot about "photographicness" and what it says about subject matter. What do you "see" when you see the evidence of photography that you don't see when clearly the work is made by a human hand? There is a sense of anonymity that comes from photography, and perhaps this is the quality I most feel when I am on the street, absorbed in its textures and flow of images-- cars, people, pigeons, arrows, words, light and its absence. In the moment of taking a photograph I feel paradoxically both anonymous and invisible, yet intimately connected to the subject. By using the transfer process I combine  a tactile physical process with the more abstract and intangible nature of the camera's eye. 

Current transfer prints can be seen in the galleries to the right for "The Street: Wayfinding Continued," "Looking for Infinity" and "The Lake." 

Comments

[Bob Pearson]

Hi,
I came to your work through Martin French's site which I check out every now and then. Amazing design work. Such control of the media is astonishing and no doubt the result of much hard work over many years. I am also taken wioth your fine art work and particularly like the transfer print work. You have inspired me to have a go> I used to do some of this work 30 years ago using printed material and paint stripper as a solvent! I have an Epson R2400 and will try it out. Could you find time to let me know which carrier material and solvents you find best?
Many thanks

[Wendell Gorden]

I want to try the transfer process, can you let me know which transparency material and transfer solvent you find works best?

Thanks
Wendell

[Iskra]

Hi-- It's tricky, takes a lot of experimenting. I'd start with Apollo transparency material from Dick Blick. Only one kind of Apollo works, and they carry it in 8.5 by 11. Also try 70% isopropyl alcohol and experiment with various papers. DO wear a respirator! This site has a good collection of how-to links:
http://www.squidoo.com/inkjetimagetransfer

Alsohttp://www.digitalartstudioseminars.com/DigitalArtStudioSeminars/Home.html
Cheers,
Iskra