On View: October 20, 2023–January 20, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, October 20 | 7–9pm
Showalter Hughes Community Gallery

Presented in partnership with the Analog Film Photography Association and curated by Jacob Rodriguez, “Elemental Landscapes” is the inaugural exhibition of the Womyn’s Alternative Photography Society International, a collective focused on the intersection of alternative photography, science, and materiality. The collective offers a new perspective on alternative photography, aiming to promote female and non- binary artists who are working with analogue and experimental photographic processes. The artists featured are Sandra Davis from Philadelphia, PA, Rachel Guardiola from Massapequa, NY, Melanie King from London, UK, and Dale Rio from the Northeastern US.

With each artist utilizing a different approach and methodology, the work in this exhibition revisits the tradition of landscape photography and explores the ways in which the landscape can provide commentary on photography’s relationship with the elemental. This aspect of the elemental is manifested in the work both literally – through the metal salts incorporated into the various processes – and conceptually – through the foundational relationship between humanity and the natural world, for instance – and provides the tie that binds the work together. It is explored at various levels, as if through the lenses of both microscopes and telescopes and the eyes of both the humble and grand.

Sandra Davis

While photographing for her “Mythical Gardens Project” in the jungle of Mexico, Philadelphia-based artist Sandra Davis captures, with highly sensitive infrared film, the remnants of nature and discarded items. The imagery from the historical gardens, designed by Edward James between 1949-1984, evokes both memory and discovery. Davis’ hand-made prints are created through the complex multi-layered gum bichromate process, lending them a timeless dreamlike quality.

Melanie King

British artist Melanie King is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality. While working with historical methods, she is also researching ways to minimize the ecological impact of the photographic process. Her main body of work, “Ancient Light,” is comprised of starscapes and images created using telescopes and observatories around the world. Her recent work has been inspired by the artist’s move to Kent, UK, where she is in close proximity to dark skies, dramatic sunsets and tumultuous seas.

Dale Rio

Dale Rio is a photographic artist who lives a nomadic life, currently based in the Northeastern United States. Her art explores mortality, human constructs and man’s relationship with the natural world. The artist uses film and historic photographic processes to express her concerns about climate change and its impact on coastal areas. In addition to documenting these places, she also collaborates with nature using the cyanotype process, allowing the pattern of the tides to imprint itself on banner-sized fabric.

Rachel Guardiola

Rachel Guardiola is an interdisciplinary artist, naturalist, and educator with a studio practice focused on lens-based technology. She has been a recipient of the Hamiltonian Gallery Artist Fellowship and Studio Residency at School 33 Art Center. Guardiola has exhibited internationally with List í Ljósi, Wassaic Project, Ent Center for the Arts, Ortega y Gasset Projects, The Halide Project, Rhizome DC, Analog Cookbook, Light City Baltimore, Center for the Holographic Arts, Artscape, Sydney College of the Arts, Dakar Biennale de l’Art Contemporain, Studio Vortex, Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (MoCA), and Washington Project for the Arts amongst others. She has been an artist in residence at MASS MoCA, A.I.R. Gallery, Arctic Circle Art and Science Expedition, HEIMA, Vermont Studio Center, and Atelier de Visu. Guardiola received an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She served as an Environmental Education Extension Agent for the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa.