Wild Emulsion: Film Soup and Colour Mordançage

Description

Film soup and colour mordançage have the potential to work together to make psychedelic photographs with fascinating textures. In this immersive full-day workshop, we will spend the morning discussing film soup techniques and deciding from a variety of pre-soaked film soup options to shoot. Participants will receive 2 sheets of 4x5 colour sheet film and will learn soup techniques they can use on their own film (any format) after the workshop. 

We will explore the neighbourhood with a large format camera, shooting the souped film. We will then develop the film with C-41 chemistry, using the bleach bypass method to retain silver in the film, which will allow it to react with the mordançage chemistry. 

Our final task will be to soak our film in the mordançage chemistry and watch as the emulsion lifts, turning into bubbles and veils. Once the film is rinsed and dried, the emulsion will stick back on to the celluloid and the negative can be scanned or printed. Participants will leave the workshop with two fully-realised film soup/colour mordançage negatives and accompanying scans. 

This internationally acclaimed workshop has been taught at the Experimental Photo Festival (Barcelona, Spain), Rotlicht Festival (Vienna, Austria), Filmverkstaden (Vaasa, Finland) and upcoming at Ströndin Studio (Seydisfjördur, Iceland).

Bio

Ella Morton (she/her) is a Canadian visual artist and filmmaker living in Tkarón:to/Toronto, on the land of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenoshaunee and the Wendat peoples. Her expedition-based practice has brought her to residencies and projects across Canada, Scandinavia, Latin America, Greenland and Antarctica. Working primarily with lens-based media, she uses experimental analogue processes to capture the sublime and fragile qualities of remote landscapes. Reflecting on how the medium of photography is changing in the digital age, she aims to uncover how photographs can show more than a straightforward depiction of reality, and how the alchemy of analogue techniques can be reinvented in the present day to tell deeper stories within images. 

Image Credit: Ella Morton, Kata Tjuta, lightjet print from expired colour film with mordançage, 2025

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