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“The relative ease of producing a complete ‘reality’ in art” through photography led Vida Freeman to a series of experiments that called upon her background in ceramics. The Northridge Earth Series, 1978, allowed her to indulge her penchant for replication. It also enabled her to analyze alternative photographic systems, comparing the functions and syntax of each.

For the series, Freeman presents three elements, side by side: a standard, gelatin silver, black and white photographic print with hand coloring; a paper “earthprint” embossed with a photographic image from a deeply etched metal plate and colored with earth; and a “porcelain photo print”—clay cast or stamped using a similar etched plate, then colored with oxides and earth in two firings.