NORTHFIELD — Images of bright yellow corn, rusty cars and a colorful Little League sign covered a red table in Pioneer Valley Regional School’s art room, the fruit of the labors of seven students dabbling with a new art form: giclée film transfers.
Photographic artist Terri Cappucci of Turners Falls visited Pioneer Wednesday afternoon to teach the combined Photography 2, Photography 3 and Digital Arts class about an alternative way to print photos, hoping to inspire a revival of photo printing.
“Photography is getting lost in our society because nobody prints anymore, everything is digital,” Cappucci said. “I’m trying to re-inspire kids to print their photos.”
When the students were asked at the start of class how many photos they print out of every hundred they take, senior Lizzie Fuller of Northfield estimated she prints two to frame or give as gifts. By the end of class, the students had learned a method to customize printed images.
“It makes each photograph unique on its own,” Cappucci said. “You can’t really duplicate it.”
To make giclée film transfers, the students began with images printed on transparency film. To keep everything connected to Northfield, Cappucci provided images of the Llewelyn family’s corn, old vehicles at the corner of Routes 10 and 142, and an old sign for Northfield Little League formerly located behind Northfield Elementary School.
Next, the students distressed the images by spraying them with water and dabbing them with paper towels or sponges. They could also use pointed utensils, such as scissors, to make streaks in the image.
After thoroughly covering a separate sheet of hot press watercolor paper with Purell hand sanitizer, the students flipped the transparency film on top of the paper and rolled over the image with small rubber brayers, ensuring the transfer.
“I like the distressing of it,” Fuller noted after finishing her first giclée film transfer. Distressing, Cappucci explained, gives the images an older look, fading in places.
The workshop, which was offered with funding help from the nonprofit Foundation for Educational Excellence, received high praise from the students.
“Ten out of 10, I would do it again,” said junior Alyks Kostecki of Northfield. “It seems really simple. You can do it at home.”
In their first experience with giclée film transfers, students enjoyed how easily the images could be customized through distressing.
“I’ve seen images like that around, so it’s neat to see how that was done,” said senior Jullianna Chapin of Bernardston. “There’s more control with what you can do yourself than what you can do with an app.”