Eyes guide light into our head. The brain gives this light a meaning. Everyone blinks 17 times a minute. When awake, eyes are closed for a quarter of an hour every day. The world is seen in fragments, yet processed without gaps.

What eludes interpretation is what is seen, irritates, alienates. It is attractive or repulsive, sometimes both at the same time. Perturbation is a special form of arousal. The world shows itself, but what it actually looks like is what life tells us. “When no one is watching” is a fragile ballad showing a different reality. What does the world do when nobody is watching?

“Objectivity is the illusion that observations can be made without an observer.” (Heinz von Foerster) There are no words for the unknown. But there are pictures of it. Places that have their very own intensity and mood. And then there is this creature - when no one is watching.

Skies are glassy streaks of ether. Below stands the creature, as foreign familiar as the surrounding architecture and nature, the structures of which corresponds to the character. A framework of tension. "When no one is watching"; it is another world, inevitably undetected.

With analog precision, Rene Huemer takes a stand against the frenzied acceleration of the digital. The photographic race against the drying chemistry on the glass plate is a practiced deceleration in the 21st century. The photographs captured show us what is there when our backs are turned, a shy reality.

'When No One Is Watching' is an ongoing series by collaborating photographers Rene Huemer & Cherie Hansson. 

COLLODION PROCESS

In this process, preparing, photographing and developing the image is a single, continuous operation that can take up to two hours.
It is a precisely defined process. Every detail has an impact on the image: The condition and cleanliness of the glass plate, the mixing ratio of the chemicals, temperature, humidity, exposure time and all the subtleties of development - to name just a few of the parameters.

The technology was invented in 1850, and the wet-collodion process is still at the same technical level today.
The combination of different chemicals provide a light-sensitive coating on the glass plates. The plate must then be placed in a light-tight film-holder, which then goes in the back of the camera.

Now a few seconds of exposure. Fractions of a second and the skill of the photographer decide whether the photograph is captured correctly.
As soon as the cap is back on the lens, the glass plate must immediately be developed and fixed.
Photochemistry is tamer work with microorganisms. Nature lives, light lives, chemical substances live, creatures live. The photographic skills required for “when no one is watching” can hardly be estimated high enough.