– an Expedition into the Elementary Particle
Photographs consist of small particles.
An exposed negative is a collection of silver grains.
A digital file is composed of millions of identically shaped pixels.

For a long time it was believed that grains of sand were the smallest indivisible particles that comprised our universe.
Then the atom was discovered, and it was thought indivisible, until it was split to reveal protons, neutrons and electrons inside. These too, seemed like fundamental particles, before scientists discovered that protons and neutrons are made of three quarks each. The search for an answer to the enduring question of the smallest thing in the universe has evolved along with humanity. The idea that even the smallest particle is divisible into two halves can make the mind spin. But what if you want to photo­graph the smallest particle? A photograph is indifferent to the size of its subject matter. What seems small in real life, becomes big before our eyes. Once photographed, the quark will become divisible into millions of pixels! Encouraged by this unsolvable enigma, Salvo decided to turn its attention to the smaller parts of the universe.

The subject of Salvo’s tenth issue is the elementary particle: the rice grain of the paella, the brick of the building, the dot on top of the “i”, the star in the Milky Way. We collaborated with Knust Press; a print workspace specialized in Risograph printing. In the RISO technique, ink is pressed through tiny holes in a master sheet that is wrapped around an ink drum, soaking each sheet of paper with tiny dots of information. For each new color the ink drum needs to be replaced by another drum. After each replacement the paper runs through the machine again, slowly gaining weight by gathering new ink dots, until each sheet has reached its full potential as a RISO print.