X RAYS

It suddenly occurred to me; the technology of X-rays has been producing essentially transparent images for a long time. Mr. Røntgen, as we learned in science class, is the scientist who established a systematic understanding of X-rays in 1895. Of course, X-rays were first seen by other scientists before that. Some scientists saw the X-ray effect and did not research it further. Others made halting stabs at the technology without fully understanding it.

(As an aside, this is the typical developmental pathway of any new technology. Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. Apple Computer did not invent the GUI. So it is always someone coming along later that then is able to connect the dots to ensure entry into the history books as well as fortune.)

Back to X-rays. Jim Wehtje is an artist who has been producing X-ray photos and images since 1996. The image above of light bulbs is one of his creations. And the image above is used on Transparent Drawing with his permission.

Jim writes the following. “Transmissive x-ray photography captures an image from rays that go through the whole subject. The resulting radiograph is based on density that can show interesting interior detail. It cannot be faked by simply applying a filter digitally, unless of course the subject had nothing of differing density inside. It is a little bit Cubist in the sense that different depths are seen at the same time, such as for a lateral view of dolls showing both ears and eyes.”

It is interesting that he uses the word Cubist. I had not thought to apply this term to his X-ray images, but now that he mentions it, I see his point. There is a flattening, similar to what we saw in the Paul Klee watercolor a couple of posts back. Jim went on to explain that not all of his images are a simple one shot X-ray. Instead there are various digital tracing, image inverting, and layering in Photoshop of the various X-ray exposures. He says that he has to do this given that some parts are more dense than others.

Nevertheless, his X-ray images really do a lot of work.  We are able to understand the three dimensionality of the objects.  We can understand connections, light source, and the bulb socket.  In essence, these images do everything that we want them to.  The entire object is resolved.

This makes me wonder if Jim’s layering technique could inform a Transparent Drawing variant. What if a transparent drawing was assembled in layers in Photoshop, similar to how he produces his layering of images for his X rays? So you might hand draw different segments or elements of your object. Then you could assemble them in layers in Photoshop.

Of course, this is then not a 100% analogue process. Nevertheless, we all need to be on the lookout for various drawing techniques that allow us to draw analogue yet accept the fact that computers do exist and they are very powerful.

At any rate, I think one upcoming drawing exercise is to “draw like an X-ray” and see what happens.

This is one link where Jim’s work can be found

http://www.alternativephotos.com/portfolio.html