Virtual Open Studios Fall 2022 - ART 150 Darkroom Practices
Instructor - Kathleen Perry
Bethany Johnson
My name is Bethany Johnson, and I have loved photography since I was introduced to the medium through an introduction course in college. I have always loved photographing wildlife and landscapes, and found inspiration in wildlife photographers such as Frans Lanting and Melissa Groo. Using these subjects, I wanted to create a series of photographs to show the beautiful nature that surrounded Santa Cruz, while also portraying the harmful impacts humans have created.
My process into creating this was to first research the ways in which humans have impacted nature. While many of my searches brought up climate change, there were other small things that I had learned that also create negative outcomes, like roads, fishing, and buildings. To show this, I went out in search of areas where I could find things such as construction sites near rivers and coastlines, pollution, and roadkill.
Photographing wildlife and landscapes with an analog camera offered its challenges and beauty, as I was used to working with digital cameras. Some challenges for my project came from searching for what to photograph that could best bring my message across, while another was the tedious process of printing these photographs, but there was also the beauty that came with seeing the images appear on the print. Through this, I have learned how I can use my photography skills to ask what we can do as a species to protect wildlife and conserve the nature that surrounds us.
“Untitled”
This photo is meant to show the domestication and industrialization around the campus of UCSC.
“Untitled”
This photo is to display how manmade wharfs have provided small spaces for seals as nearby beaches have been occupied by people.
“Untitled”
This photo of a dead pigeon hit by a car shows one of the ways in which vehicles have changed the way animals have adapted to living in neighborhoods, even though they still risk becoming roadkill.
“Untitled”
This photo was used to show how the wildlife around campus have adapted to live in close proximity to humans.
Ella Newton
Water Drops
35mm on RC (sadly phone photos of the photos)
Light on Trees
35mm on RC
Light on Water
35mm on RC
Wait, Shoe
35mm on RC
Evan Robel
“Canyon”
Darkroom print on matt fiber paper
This print is of a photograph taken in Kings Canyon. I wanted to show the damage caused by fires while still showing the beauty of the landscape.
“Erosion”
Darkroom print on matt fiber paper
This print is of a photograph taken along the coastline of Catalina Island. I wanted to capture the weird and unique shapes of the rocks here.
“decay”
Darkroom print on matt fiber paper
This print is of a photograph taken in the forest behind the UCSC campus. This photograph is meant to capture the small little details and intricacies of an ordinary place.
“Layers”
This print is of a photograph taken along the California coast. I wanted this photograph to highlight the layering of the landscape created by fog and harsh lighting.
Fox Wong
Going into this project, all I wanted was to display a love for film and create images that seemed like abstract film stills. As I shot more film and printed more, I started to realize a narrative forming through this work. Characters were formed, and a build up, climax, and resolution were revealed to me. I began to refine the work and cut images from the final or add more as they were needed. I titled this work “The Tin Man '', after its main character, this abstracted figure seemingly made of tin. We are first introduced to our main character in the first photograph, a haunting portrait with harsh contrast to strike the viewer. He is shown a vision, conveyed through light. A scream, then flashes of quick imagery are shown to him, a murder shown to him by some otherworldy energy. He tries to reject this at first, but ultimately succumbs to watching it happen. The second to last photograph shows him vomiting, his short journey over for the time being. Credits roll, as a self portrait is shown within a portrait. Who is the tin man? Why was he shown this? I wanted questions to be left open ended, as if you just had a nightmare and were trying to piece together the logic that tied it all together. Each image in this work was very deliberately chosen to represent something and you as the viewer must decipher it. I am sad that I can’t display this work in its entirety in open studios, as I believe it functions best as a series, but I hope that a few of the photos from this series pique your interest.
“The Tin Man Film Still 1”
Photograph printed on RC paper
“The Tin Man Film Still 2”
Photograph printed on RC paper
“The Tin Man Film Still 3”
Photograph printed on RC paper
“The Tin Man Film Still 7”
Photograph printed on RC paper
Kasey Morales
A project based on the feelings of nostalgia and homesickness. While being abroad this summer, I went through plenty of rough moments and found myself feeling a bit lost without my friends and family. While I am grateful for the opportunity to travel this summer, there came feelings of longing for my hometown and yearning to see my loved ones. The day I came home, I realized how much I value the place where I grew up and all the special people in my life. For this project, I want to show the simple things that bring me comfort and the people who feel like home.
“Sweet Memories”
The bakery I frequently went to when growing up. A place filled with sweets and foods that never disappoints.
“2008”
One of my childhood homes. Some of my earliest memories were made here.
“Fun Times”
My friend, staring into the camera in the midst of a fun, chaotic night with more friends.
“Birthday Celebrations”
My mother, looking out into the distance from a hotel balcony. It’s the morning after her birthday, and she takes the time to relax and enjoy the views.
Katie Lyne Kravitz
Darkroom Practices Final Project
Artist Statement
For my final project I focus on the process of printing, centralizing my concept around textures and their interaction with light and casted shadow. Specifically with organic materials, I observe the forms of absorption or deflection that result from these interactions. Subsequently, these materials are altered and transformed by these outer influences. Objects are made translucent at one perspective, or dense in shadow from another view. Like in close-up images of the plant, a rising stem awaiting to unfurl casts a stuttered line along the bent leaf below it. Our attention is directed towards the way in which distortion, inflicted by the intangible force of light, can reshape a composition and its objects. These forces placed upon familiar forms viewed in and around my home, are abstracted by the change in day and momentary directions of light that pace through the rooms or over buildings nearby. Luminance present in an image might embolden the central subject in a few ways, emphasizing its own shape and detailed body, or drawing our attention to the edges and absent moments of detail. I aimed to examine how we might view these absences in place of present forms, and how these captured moments present themselves as altered states rather than divergent static objects detached from their identity in reality. It’s possible all objects are made mobile only by the way light presses against or travels through them, yet it is also possible that film photography and the process of manipulating a print could conflate this idea. However, I might suggest that these darkroom practices don’t graft fallacies on what is captured. Rather they gently magnify our gaze to something very present, even in the moment it is captured when we do not see it as vividly as when it appears to us from the paper – this essence of surprise is what I found most gratifying by the process and the body of work I present here.
2022
“Distilled Edges”
(light through a leaf)
RC Paper Print with Pearl Luster
This image captures the distillation of light in conjunction with defining the transparency of the leaf’s texture.
“Wired Spire”
RC Paper Print with Pearl Luster
Here this image studies ideas of projection and layers of light and shadow. We begin to see how light and its position on objects can begin to abstract and distort the image plane.
“Bud Bed”
RC Paper Print with Pearl Luster
The dried bud protrudes from the sheet’s edge, displaying its shadow opposite from it like a mirrored reflection on water. The fabric and shadow’s edge frames the bud and sharpens the edges of its form as it counteracts the softness of the fabric curling around it.
“Stuttering Sprout”
(rising leaf)
RC Paper Print with Pearl Luster
Taking into consideration the interaction between form and light, we start to witness the shadow’s hand in composing the abstracted scene. Forms more recognizable to the naked eye become broad and enlivened shapes, evading recognition.
Laura Staats
This series of photos focuses on figurative photography. I wanted to get more experience working with models in various environments and lighting situations. My goal was to not only capture the personalities and passions of my models, but also explore themes that are of personal and artistic interest to me.
“J” – Lighting Studio
I was very excited for the opportunity to work with Jessica for an intensive photo shoot in week 35 of her pregnancy.” J” and I are both active members of the kink community and find the psychology and intense emotions that kink play inspires fascinating. We explored bondage themes while discussing its parallels with parenting and the commitment and servitude necessary to raise a child. Sex, pregnancy, and birth all have an inherent primal nature that is often channeled in various ways through kink play, and I was honored to work with “J” to explore these themes in my photos.
“D”- Model’s Home
I met “D” when she came in to view my paintings at a First Friday exhibit in early October. She felt a connection with the spiritual and earthy themes in my work and offered to model for me. These photographs explore spirituality and the interconnectedness between woman and earth.
“E”, “D”, and “J”- Hotel Room
I began this shoot working with “D” and “E” with clear inspiration from Robert Mapplethorpe. Though acceptance of the queer community has come a long way since Mapplethorpe’s time, there is still a strong need to promote diversity and bring awareness to LGBT+ issues. As the shoot progressed, and particularly once “J” was added to the mix, I began to focus on power exchange dynamics in the postures and body language of my models. As the photographer directing the shoot, I was aware of my own involvement in the power exchange. Femdom themes feature prominently in the shoot. This is a dynamic I find particularly compelling in our still largely patriarchal society.
Mary Anderson
Untitled
Film Photograph
Brick staircase at the Evergreen Cemetery
Untitled
Film Photograph
Gravestone at Evergreen Cemetery