1960s
gelatin silver print, 29.8 × 39.8 cm,
two artist’s stamps on the reverse
vintage

In her creative process, Rydet attached great importance to drawing the right emotional response from viewers. She gave her works a specific mood by using various photographic methods and techniques, notably photomontage, but also the pseudo-solarisation effect, as in this work. Visually similar to solarisation, the pseudo-solarisation technique involves partial reversal of the negative image into a positive one by exposing the photo-sensitive material during its development to additional, uniform light. Pseudo-solarisation produces a positive image and a weaker negative image superimposed onto it, with the two images separated by a bright border area referred to as the equidensity line.
Publication: Zofia Rydet (1911-1997). Photographs (Museum of Art in Łódź, 1999).