Shadows of Silver
A black and white film and digital photography project by Filipe Teixeira-Dias, 2025 —
Shadows of Silver (working title) is an ongoing study of Scotland’s photographic history and pioneering relationship with early photography. The project focusses on process and material, and combines film and digital image-making to explore how silver, chemistry and craft continue to shape the way images are not only made but also understood. Shadows of Silver draws on Scotland’s early role in photography (i.e. from the calotypes of Hill & Adamson to later darkroom practice), extending to present day role of Scotland in the art of photography. The aim is to focus on the physical act of making images, with an eye on texture and tone: negatives, prints, architectural remains and the people and spaces where photography is practised.
The work is reflective rather than archival. Each frame is built around observation, (mostly) using monochrome to study how light and memory can be recorded. This page will gather early studies, working notes and new work as the project grows.
“The rough surface, and unequal texture throughout of the paper is the main cause of the Calotype failing in details, before the process of Daguerreotypy – and this is the very life of it. They look like the imperfect work of a man, and not the much diminished perfect work of God.
David Octavius Hill, 1848
[in “The History of Photography” by Beaumont Newhall, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1964, p.37]
