Why „silberspur“?

I began photographing at a time when digital photography was still unknown, and analog photography was the standard. In analog photography, instead of a memory card, film coated with a light-sensitive emulsion is used. This emulsion contains tiny crystals of silver compounds, such as silver bromide, silver chloride, or silver iodide. When light strikes the film, the silver halide in the exposed areas is transformed into elemental silver by the incoming light, creating what is known as a latent image — an initially invisible record of light.

In the darkroom, the film is immersed in a developer solution, which reduces the exposed silver halide further, making the latent image visible. Next, a fixer bath removes any unexposed silver halide, stabilizing the image and making it permanently light-resistant. The result is a negative image, where light areas appear dark and dark areas appear light, which can then be transferred to photo paper to create a positive image.

The dark areas on the negative (which later correspond to light areas in the positive) are composed of finely distributed, metallic silver.

So, in a way, one could say that light leaves a trace of silver on the film. This poetic idea inspired me over 20 years ago to name my website „silberspur“—„silver trace“.

Find below two of my „analog“ pictures taken some 25 to 30 years ago.