I have always loved and been drawn to photography. I took a few photography classes in college, and I really enjoyed it. My favourite was an analogue photography class I took where we focused on developing our own photos in a dark room. A lot of the photography was black and white to emphasize texture and value. We also did photo journals as a class project which we had to share with the class. One of them was using potatoes as the feature of our photographs, and the other was a photo essay on “home.” I was surprised at how many beautiful black and white photos of a potato that actually told somewhat of a story that I was able to capture throughout the course of the semester. The home project turned out to be really fun and meaningful as well.

Why do I bring this up? I know that as artists we like to tell stories with our art. But I think there is also so much value in photography. I love having a library of beautiful photos to use as inspiration for painting/art journaling, etc. I am also discovering how many different ways there to incorporate photography into art. You can print them onto printer paper to enjoy meaningful images in your art journal, or do an image transfer with encaustic, or photocopy your photographs and play with the values to create a new piece of art. The possibilities are endless!

How about you? Do you ever incorporate photographs into your mixed media work or art journals?

Thanks for stopping by!