Maiofis Gregori

Maiofis's works are not like photographs in the usual sense: his works are blurred, often assembled from several layers of images. Like moments of awareness, they seem to flicker in the field of vision, soft, indistinct, with indeterminate boundaries. Here, Maiofis once again challenges photographic representation and adds another layer of meaning, creating images with mimetic and painterly qualities. He achieves this by using the bromoil printing process, a method borrowed from another era, invented and widely used in the first quarter of the twentieth century.

This is a laborious process that requires considerable skill. First, the photographer creates a traditional silver-gelatin print. Not all modern papers are suitable for bromoil, so it takes a fair amount of experimentation at the beginning to find the right medium. The paper is then bleached to remove silver salts and treated with a solution of potassium dichromate. As a result, a ghostly image is created, obtained from a cured layer of gelatin of various thicknesses, called a matrix. Then it is fixed, dried, soaked in water again and dried to a state of wet paThis is a laborious process that requires considerable skiirst, the photographer creates a traditional silver-gelatin print. Not all modern papers are suitable for bromoil, so it takes a fair amount of experimentation at the beginning to find the right medium. The paper is then bleached to remove silver salts and treated with a solution of potassium dichromate. As a result, a ghostly image is created, obtained from a cured layer of gelatin of various thicknesses, called a matrix. Then it is fixed, dried, soaked in water again and dried to a state of wet paper. Where the gelatin layer is thickest, the matrix swells in water; where the layer is thinner, less moisture remains. After that, the paint commonly used in lithography is applied to the surface. Since oil and water do not mix, the paint does not penetrate into the ar

Maiofis's works are not like photographs in the usual sense: his works are blurred, often assembled from several layers of images. Like moments of awareness, they seem to flicker in the field of vision, soft, indistinct, with indeterminate boundaries. Here, Maiofis once again challenges photographic representation and adds another layer of meaning, creating images with mimetic and painterly qualities. He achieves this by using the bromoil printing process, a method borrowed from another era, invented and widely used in the first quarter of the twentieth century. This is a laborious process that requires considerable skill. First, the photographer creates a traditional silver-gelatin print. Not all modern papers are suitable for bromoil, so it takes a fair amount of experimentation at the beginning to find the right medium. The paper is then bleached to remove silver salts and treated with a solution of potassium dichromate. As a result, a ghostly image is created, obtained from a cured layer of gelatin of various thicknesses, called a matrix. Then it is fixed, dried, soaked in water again and dried to a state of wet paper. Where the gelatin layer is thickest, the matrix swells in water; where the layer is thinner, less moisture remains. After that, the paint commonly used in lithography is applied to the surface. Since oil and water do not mix, the paint does not penetrate into the areas covered with gelatin, but is absorbed by the paper, and various tones and highlights appear on the image. It all starts with an image taken with a camera and lens, so the prints using the bromoil technology belong to photographic images. At the same time, they are processed manually, and through bleaching and tinting, they turn into something else, tactile and elusive. Because the artist controls the amount of paint applied to the surface of the matrix, he can lighten or darken certain areas. The paint is applied manually, so brush marks and other signs of the artist's presence may be visible. Bromoil is a complex and lengthy process, the result of which depends to a certain extent on the case. No two prints are the same, no matter how expertly they are made.

Text: Phillippe Prodger

Working with bromoil, Maiofis demonstrates the technical maestro, creating exquisite, visually appealing prints that very vaguely resemble an ordinary black-and-white photograph. At the turn of the twentieth century, pictorialist photographers saw this approach as a challenge to traditional established art forms. Later, this technique began to be perceived as sentimental and nostalgic, but in the minds of pictorialists, everything was much more serious. If a photographer is able to create something as grandiose and pictorial as drawing or painting, they reasoned, then, undoubtedly, photography can rightfully occupy a place in the walls of museums and art galleries. No longer caring about proving the artistic value of photography, Maiofis turns this logic on its head. 

His works are metaphorical and allegorical. As in Aesop's fables, elephants, monkeys, and bears inhabit our social world, where they play the piano, dance, and pose with a ballerina.