Developed very early on in photographic history, the cyanotype process was largely used for architectural diagramming (read: blueprints) until Anna Atkins utilized it to illustrate her book Photographs of British Algae, making it the first to be photographically illustrated. To this day, cyanotype continues to enjoy a symbiotic relationship with botanicals, but many contemporary artists also use the process in new and experimental ways. Artist Sandra C. Davis will help you make your own cyanotypes! Feel free to bring in negatives or objects from home to use for cyanotype-making or use what we provide.

Sandra C. Davis is fine art photographer whose haunting imagery is about capturing remembered moments from the past to cherish in the future. Most of her work is printed in gum bichromate, palladium, and cyanotype. She teaches alternative photography classes at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and has taught numerous workshops throughout the USA.

Sandra C Davis Website

Widely known for its use during the Civil War, the wet plate collodion process was an early technological advance in photography that allowed “itinerant” photographers to bring portraiture out of city centers. This democratized portrait photography, allowing those who had never before had access to it commemorate themselves and their families. Largely bypassed by faster and more convenient processes – like dry plate and, eventually, film photography – wet plate collodion is experiencing a resurgence with portraitists and fine art photographers embracing its handmade and tactile nature. Maurene Cooper will be demonstrating how to create wet plate collodion still lifes.

Helen Maurene Cooper is an artist and educator living in Philadelphia, PA. She earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from Bard College. She has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally; Onomatopee (Eindhoven, Netherlands), Clare Morris Gallery (Ireland), Soap Factory (Minneapolis), Space Mountain (Miami), and Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation (Chicago). Cooper began her study of wet plate photography with France Scully Osterman in 2013. People of the Caregivers (2020-Present) is her second body of ambrotype plates.

Vanity Tintype Website

Learn how to design an Augmented Reality art work. Termite Tv Collective will demonstrate how to expand the storytelling power of photography through their Places of Power project. The Places of Power project uses the tools of augmented/virtual reality, photogrammetry and 360 panoramic prints to amplify the stories of underrepresented communities. In this exhibit, artists Anula Shetty and Michael Kuetemeyer present selected works co-created with community groups. “Villa Africana Colobó Garden” in collaboration with Norris Square Neighborhood Project and “Echoes from the Conch Shell” in collaboration with Reichhold Center/University of the Virgin Islands.

Termite TV Collective makes media to challenge rigid structures through formal disruption, experimental methods, and community engagement. Just as the subterranean termite tears away at structural foundations through ingenuity and collective practice, Termite TV Collective believes that an expanded visual language is the vehicle for imagining new futures and provoking new thinking on pressing issues of our time. We work collectively and collaboratively, encouraging the freedom to explore with a sense of playfulness, spontaneity, and discovery. Through individual expression radiating out from common themes, Termites co-create space for idea sharing and collective world-building.

Termite TV Collective Website

Join Pop Up Polaroid’s Kara Khan for an in-depth walk through her 8x10 Polaroid practice. Learn the science behind the iconic Polaroid photo as Khan introduces you to the ins and outs of the 8x10 Polaroid process, the largest Polaroid format on the market. Participants will be led through the entire process from set up to development and go over the unique equipment that makes this process possible. Khan will also go over a few experimental ways of manipulating the film through personal examples, and then share the work of other contemporary Polaroid artists. Stick around after the demo to sit for your own 8x10 portrait.

Kara Khan is a photographer and installation artist working in Philadelphia. Her research based work is rooted in collaboration, experimentation, and direct action. For the last decade, Khan has run Pop Up Polaroid, a Photo Booth and portrait studio, where she has shared the magic of Polaroid photography through her work at events in Philadelphia and beyond. As a teaching artist she has shared the value of historic and alternative process through workshops and demos at schools, art institutions, and out of her studio. Her work has been shown around the country and published in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Magazine, among others.

Pop Up Polaroid Website

Wandering Obscura is a free-standing camera obscura collaboratively created by Liz Sales and Carmel Simmons. It reimagines an ancient optical device, which uses a small hole in a darkened room to project an inverted image of the outside world onto its surfaces. By transforming a familiar landscape into living images, a camera obscura fosters a sense of wonder. This mobile installation aims to bring art into public spaces and make room for curiosity in our everyday environments. Once you step inside, you are not just a passive observer but an active participant, helping to shape the artwork by reinterpreting the ever-changing image.

Liz Sales is a photo-based artist, art-writer, and educator. She was an editor at Conveyor Magazine, is a collaborator on Mercuria Magazine and has frequently published writing in Foam Magazine. As part of her personal art practice, she lived and worked in a functional camera obscura in Brooklyn, NY, for one year.

Liz Sales Website