Irene Zóttola (@irene_zottola) specializes in darkroom techniques and alternative processes. She explores liquid emulsion on different supports like paper, ceramic, wood, glass, stone and textiles. In the last few years, she has taken part of the Slow Photo Collective to explore the limits of analog photography as a tool to express a particular dreamlike world, sexuality and her ideal role as a woman in modern society. The use of text with her images adds a theatrical component to her work. This delicate and complex process makes each piece unique.
Most of her work is self-referenced and explores the nature of human relationships. By processing images analogically and working with them slowly in the darkroom Irene reflects on the passage of time on different materials, preserving the memory of most of her loved ones. Each piece is a unique element that is part of a whole: some images are seen more clearly, others are darker, but all of them are a part of us.
One of her first explorations was using liquid emulsion and analogical process. She prints each image on a very thin piece of drawing paper, emulating with its texture the elegance and uniqueness of trees and leaves. Each piece is accompanied by a phrase written with a typewriter on the same paper. Using the shape of the brush entwined with branches she depicts the fragility of human relationships.
In her project Final de juego (The End of the Game) she explores the last moments in a relationship with the use of a verse by Gloria Fuentes (“Quien ama al tigre, no siente el zarpazo” which means who loves the tiger does not feel the swipe). This is a sequence of 45 images that reflects on a personal experience about human relationships and how most of the times we insist on loving what destroys us.