This topic has fascinated me since the 1970s, when silver-colored photographic paper for black-and-white prints first emerged.
"I should," I thought, "replace the silver with radiant gold. That would create a truly unique color space." It wasn't until the late 2000s that the Durst company from Brixen developed a printing machine for plate materials - the first one worldwide at the time - and I was able to realize my long-cherished dream.
The first machine of this inkjet printer type was located in Gaumberg near Linz. At prices that could only be described as exorbitant, I was able to experiment with various subjects on different materials.
The color inks used in these works are fixed during the printing process by UV lamps mounted behind the print heads at around 80°C. This process guarantees absolute lightfastness for years: a gold ground print can be hung in direct sunlight without fading.
The base material is typically 24-carat pure gold; the print is applied to a completely gold-plated wooden panel.
The gold ground photos represent a kind of reality whose elevation leads into the imaginary and the fantastical. The viewer becomes part of a staging that opens directly into vastness, beyond the visibly depicted. It's an immersion into a deeper kind of reality: not a confrontation between viewer and viewed, but a harmony in light.
Like a summer's day on a southern road.
