On the 21 December 1999 Elizabeth Ransom's family immigrated to the United States of America. This day has played a significant role in her transnational identity. It is from this day forward that she began to experience the constant oscillation of two selves. Continually longing for what once was while at the same time attempting to assimilate to her new home in search of acceptance and a sense of belonging. In Ransom’s series Immigration Day, she returns to her first home in America exactly twenty years after her Immigration Day. Through using cyanotypes and photograms Ransom creates a record of this personally significant location. Cataloguing the rain that fell on that day, the textures of the trees and the cracks in the pavement. Each impression fixed on to the light sensitive paper acts as a marker of time. Each image documenting the space providing evidence of its existence and a reminder of of the past.
Rain Cyanotypes captures an imprint of each individual raindrop that fell on the 21 December 2019. Ransom placed paper coated in light sensitive cyanotype chemicals out in the rain at the location of her first home in America. Each droplet landed on the surface of the paper and washed away the chemicals revealing the white of the paper beneath. An impression of each individual raindrop imbedded into the cyanotype image acting as a documentation of the weather on the anniversary of the artists immigration day.
Surface Records is the second part of the series Immigration Day . These images were created using the frottage drawing method which were later turned into digital negatives to create photograms in the colour darkroom. Ransom input the numbers from the date of her immigration day into the yellow, magenta, and cyan dials of the enlarger rendering the drawings as red and black photograms. This camera-less photography technique creates a record of this personally significant location.
Traces of Weather is the final instalment of the Immigration Day series. These abstract cyanotypes were created by collecting rainwater from the gutters of Ransom’s first home in America and washing the water over cyanotype paper. The images attempt to recreate the movement of water that glided over the windows, cars, pathways, and pavements on the twentieth anniversary of her immigration day.
