Orange Divination, Nos. 1, 2, & 3
If you have a question, think of it as you count the seeds of an orange. If an even number is found, the answer to your question is no; an odd number indicates an affirmative response.
Divination has been practiced since the beginning of humankind as a way to ascertain the answers to questions asked by the querent. Methods are numerous and have varied throughout time and cultures. Throwing dice and bones, reading tarot cards, or consulting astrological charts are some more recognizable practices. My interest lies in the ones that have become old wives’ tales and superstitions. In this case, the number of seeds found in an orange hold the answers to our questions.
This work is photographed using a 35mm DSLR camera through a small handmade camera modeled after Henry Fox Talbot’s mousetrap camera that he used in his early photographic experiments. This camera uses a child’s bug box magnifier for a lens, a recycled plastic bag for a ground glass, and close-up filters placed in front of the 35mm DSLR camera. This mix of old and new photographic techniques yields prints that reference an even earlier form of image capture - painting.
This is the first sequence of images in an ongoing series that began in 2018.