JUNE 2022
CENTER AND NORTH GALLERIES
Lux Botanica | Vanessa Powell
Artist Statement
I have always known the connection between nature and humanity. As a child I spent hours singing, dancing, and creating imaginary worlds among the lights and shadows dappling the forest floor. Nature has long been my playmate, my partner and my space to dream.
My alternative process photography series, Lux Botanica, combines botanical material, expired photographic print paper, and a centuries old cameraless photography technique to create artwork that coaxes shifts in perception and invites new interpretations of my known world. Color, translucency, and light guide a refocusing of surface level vision to reveal an image that feels familiar and, at the same time, manifested entirely of dreams. '
Lumen Prints
The lumen print was first developed in the 1830’s by William Henry Fox Talbot. Talbot placed plants on sensitized paper and exposed the paper to sunlight, creating a negative print from which positive contact prints could be made. The original lumen print is archivally unstable and known as a fugitive (impermanent) print. Fugitive prints continue to expose over time, leaving countless opportunities for reiteration and exploration.
The images in Lux Botanica derive from their original, fugitive prints. Immediately taken after being pulled out of the light, these images are scanned, then refined in the digital darkroom to portray the artist’s vision.
Each fugitive print is unique to the paper on which it was created. Expired black and white photographic print paper was used to create all of the images in Lux Botanica, ranging in expiration between 1956-1988. Variable focus, uniquely textured areas, and interesting inclusions are expected as they add to the authenticity of the photograph. These are unique to the ephemeral nature of the alternative process print.
