The Alchemy of Time

The Exhibition "Alchemy of Time"byphoto artist Elena Ternovajapresents a poetic journey through memory, transformation, and the visual Language light. At its heart are chemigrams—unique photographic works created without a camera and formed through the interplay of photographic paper, light, chemical agents, and artistic intuition. Ternovaja's works combine experimental processes with a reflective view of the history of photography and its alchemical roots.

The chemigram technique, developed in the 1950s, is considered one of the most radical forms of abstract photography. It transcends the boundaries of the classic photographic process and approaches painting, graphic art, and material art. Ternovaja takes up this tradition and expands it to include plant-based active ingredients, natural materials such as sand, shells, and dried plants, as well as the conscious incorporation of chance and time. Her images are created on light-sensitive photographic paper, which she processes using a homemade trick table, glass panes, and natural substances—a process reminiscent of early experiments in photography in the 19th century.

The Exhibition address the transience of the moment and present the transformation of inner images into visible forms. Ternovaja uses the technique of chemigrams as an alchemical metaphor: while early photography pioneers such as Talbot, Herschel, and Bayard experimented with light and chemistry to make the world visible, Ternovaja uses the same elements to visualize the invisible, the remembered, and the emotional. Her works are not representations of reality, but poetic reflections on time, transience, and transformation.

The images appear like visual diaries, sometimes delicate and fleeting, sometimes graphic and powerful. Gray tones, light gradients, and organic structures merge into a visual language that lies somewhere between photography, painting, and drawing.