Howalt has photographed chosen natural elements in their original and found form. His photographs of elements are an experiment, an attempt to embrace the uncontrollable and unforeseeable. With an almost scientific thoroughness are these elements photographed, transferred and developed on plates of silver, gold, brass, zink and aluminium. The plates have been processed with silver bromide emulsion which creates a photographic process where the processed surfaces let the motif appear with an distinct texture in the image. The chemical connection creates new transformations between the motif, alloy and the process, which becomes the image-forming element. The processed surfaces let the motif appear in different variations and no outcome is wrong in this process. Howalt initiates photographic processes and let these processes control the the design of the final work. The works is not a methodical and rational depiction of each element, but an artistic investigation, where the process plays a crucial role and the meaning is sought after beyond the factual.