A.A.W. (initials of Anna Agnes Witsen) is part of ‘Songs for soprano’, the photo essay on the life and times of Anna Witsen. It tells the story of an aristocratic young woman with impossible singing ambitions, depressions, and unrequited love at the end of the 19th century. The dogmatic ideas about the position of women and how to fulfill that role in that time meant for a woman of Anna’s position that she should not be who she wanted to be: a professional soprano singer.
For the production of etching plates and photopolymer gravures (also toyobo etchings), Schols works together with the (worldwide) appreciated top etching printer Eric Levert. Toyobo is a special printmaking technique where a digital file is exposed on a light-sensitive layer. The image is then washed out in the water. The plate is a negative and can then be printed as a (positive) etching in circulation. It gives deep dark prints with a beautiful texture. With the ancient Chine-collé technique the image is transferred onto a surface that is bonded onto heavier support in the printing process. Ultra-thin Japanese paper pasted on the heavy cotton etching paper gives the artwork its beautiful color.