‘Off the Beaten Track' at Photo Guild

MILFORD — The Polaroid image transfers of photographer, Norma Bernstock, will be featured at the Highlands Photography Guild from Aug. 8 through Sept. 6 with an opening reception on Saturday, Aug. 8, from 6 - 9 p.m. Included in the exhibit will be photographs of farm buildings from the Marie Zimmerman Homestead in Dingman Township. Image transfers have been described as a “crossover” art form. Polaroid image transfers are one-of-a-kind works of art made by projecting an image onto Polaroid peel-apart film. An image transfer is created when the normal film development time is interrupted by prematurely peeling apart the positive from the negative before all the dyes have fully transferred to the positive. The negative is then placed (or transferred) onto an alternative receptor surface such as artists’ watercolor paper. The transferred image may be enhanced with water color paints, pastels or pencils acquiring a painterly, dream-like or impressionistic look. Sometimes the colors appear muted and the image loses detail. Other times the colors are exaggerated and the image appears to be fanciful and unrealistic. “I enjoy the experimental nature of the transfers, the lack of precision associated with this process. It is almost impossible to reproduce an image. I like that each image has its own characteristics ... variations in color, different degrees of emulsion lift (when the emulsion does not adhere to the receptor surface), and other flaws which add to the unique quality of each transfer.” The Highlands Photographic Guild at 224 Broad Street, Wachovia Bank Building, is open Friday - Sunday. For more information visit www.highlandsphotoguild.com or call 570-296-2440.