RALF JACOBS

Perhaps the most accurate way to describe Ralf Jacobs is as a photographer. He ‘writes with light’ in a wonderful spectrum of old and new techniques, from 19th-century cyanotypes to software-guided laser projections. Using a combination of different photography techniques and images, he creates new realities that incorporate time as a tangible presence. The Eindhoven based artist uses his professional field as the foundation of his experiments, the field of physics and technology in optics. For his work as an optical engineer he daily sees images of spots that are projected by a lens system. This is where he became intrigued by the interesting geometric shapes of these spot images. He wanted to be able to transfer these images directly on paper. He found cyanotype as a technique that allowed him to make photograms with a laser in lamp light or dimmed daylight.

Cyanotype is a photographic printing process discovered in 1842 that produces a cyan-blue print, referred to as blueprints. Intuitively he went on a journey in the software, where he played with different combinations of settings, until he found shapes that he liked. Then he set the laser from red to blue, so it will be written in cyanotype. Jacobs says “I am the first one who explores the field of this exact combination of techniques.”

 

 Laser cyanotype harmonogram by Ralf Jacobs, 2021

 

The process Jacobs calls “light flukes” is closest to his profession as an optical engineer. Based on the technique of refractography, it involves a bundle of red, green and blue light that travels through a refractory object, like a glass object or a lens shape, before it is registered by the camera. Resulting in colorful patterns and images that deny their tiny scale to suggest playful forces of a cosmic dimension.