Entangled Shadows: Mordançage at the Edge of Coherence

2025 · Exhibition Series
Medium: Mordançage and lith printing on photographic paper
Dimensions: Variable, approximately 20 works

A unique artistic exploration transforming photographs of quantum systems into visceral representations of coherence, collapse, and emergence through mordançage and lith printing processes. Each print becomes a physical manifestation of quantum phenomena, where the unpredictable nature of the darkroom process mirrors the probabilistic behavior of quantum mechanics.

Exhibition History

ROTLICHT Festival 2025
Atelierhaus, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria · November 21-30, 2025
Winner of the international Open Call for the main exhibition at ROTLICHT Festival for Analog Photography. The work was selected from 332 submissions from 43 countries, exhibited alongside 19 other winning projects exploring the theme “Life After Extinction?”.

Artistic Process

This series emerged at the intersection of my dual practice as a quantum physicist and experimental photographer, translating my daily work with superconducting quantum hardware into tactile, darkroom-based imagery.

Conceptual Framework

The project bridges two seemingly disparate worlds: the nanoscale realm of quantum coherence and the chemical alchemy of 19th-century photographic processes.

Quantum Coherence: The ability of quantum systems to exist in superposition states—a fundamental property I work with in superconducting quantum hardware research.

Mordançage Process: A chemical process that physically lifts and manipulates the shadow areas of photographic prints, creating veil-like formations that transform the image.

Process as Metaphor: The unpredictable lifting and reforming of the photographic emulsion becomes a physical analog for quantum collapse—the moment when superposition gives way to definite states.

Technical Approach

The work combines multiple alternative processes:

Source Material: Photographs of quantum systems and experimental apparatus from the laboratory
Lith Printing: Creates high-contrast prints with distinctive grain structure and colour shifts
Mordançage Treatment: Applied to finished prints, physically manipulating the emulsion in the deepest blacks where quantum components appear
Chemical Manipulation: The bleaching solution softens the emulsion, allowing physical intervention that parallels the observer effect in quantum mechanics

Thematic Connections

Entangled Shadows operates across multiple conceptual layers:

Materiality and Immateriality: Quantum phenomena exist at scales beyond direct observation, yet the mordançage process makes the invisible tangible through physical manipulation of the photographic surface.

Coherence and Collapse: The delicate quantum coherence required for quantum computing finds its parallel in the precarious moment when the photographic emulsion lifts from its paper base—both require precise conditions and can collapse unexpectedly.

Emergence: Just as quantum systems exhibit emergent properties, the mordançage process reveals unexpected forms and textures that emerge from the chemical interaction.

Context and Reception

The work resonated with Rotlicht Festival's 2025 theme “Life After Extinction?” by exploring how we visualise and understand systems at the edge of existence—quantum coherence that exists for mere microseconds, translated through century-old processes that themselves risk extinction in our digital age.

The exhibition at Rotlicht 2025 brought together international practitioners of analog photography, creating dialogue about preservation of experimental darkroom techniques while pushing them into new conceptual territories.

This series connects to broader themes explored in my practice: