18th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards
I’m so happy to write that I’ve received five Honorable Mentions in the 18th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards! It’s a broad range of work that is reflective of what I’ve been creating since the pandemic began.
Fine Art – Series
This is a new series that I’ve been working on for more than 18 months now with the help of my mentor Elizabeth Stone. It’s called Finding Hestia. Hestia is the Greek goddess of hearth and home. I’ve been exploring the symbols of femininity and the aging female body through the detritus found on the ground at residential construction sites. In discarded, scrapped, mangled, forgotten, and broken building materials, I’ve discovered the curves of pregnancy, the folds of aging skin, and the apertures of female genitalia. I’ll be talking a lot more about this series in the months ahead. These six received the award, but are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the breadth of the project.
Nude & Figure – Single Image
I’ve been exploring self portraits lately, which can be a daunting thing. An exciting exercise too as I’m learning. There are two more self portraits at the end of this post that also received an Honorable Mention in a different category.
Abstract & Still Life – Single Image
These abstracts are unfixed lumen prints. Oh the colors! Without the added step of fixing the prints, I have to keep them stored in a light-proof bag to retain these wonderful colors. These originals have been scanned and printed as archival pigment prints.
Alternative Process – Single Image
These are also lumen prints, but have been stabilized with a photographic fixer. The blue color comes from the addition of cyanotype chemistry. The darker brown and black color comes as a result of soaking the plants in an eco-friendly developer made with vitamin C, sodium carbonate and instant coffee before I put them in contact with the paper. I love the pinks that this expired gelatin silver paper produced! Every paper has its own palette and will respond differently in this magical alchemy with different plants and varying amounts of sunlight.
