Claire's Darkroom

Film Photography by Claire Bailey

[clairesdarkroom]

So happy the sun finally came out for the Solstice here in rainy Seattle🌞☀️ This is a lumen print I made last year with solstice sunlight, then enlarged and printed on vinyl in @ginawhitephoto 's playful and imaginative alt process class! So many ways to savor this radiance✨. . . . . . #filmphotography #alternative process #lumen #fern #solstice #summersolstice #psychedelicfern (at Photographic Center Northwest)

[clairesdarkroom]

Long Shot 2017 was a success! So much great artwork and good solstice vibes all over. I'm so pleased that my cyanotype, 'Bamboo Ocean ( 竹海 ),' sold at the highest tier, and the funds are going to support this fabulous school!. . . . . #longshot2017 #cyanotype #botanicalart #alternativeprocess #summersolstice #analogphotography #bamboo #ocean #blue #istillshootfilm (at Photographic Center Northwest)

[clairesdarkroom]

One-of-a-kind cyanotypes in progress for the summer solstice🌞 Swing by for the Long Shot Exhibition Celebration Saturday between 5-9 at PCNW to hang out, see an eclectic mix of art, and get the chance to bid on my piece 🤓 Made with real bamboo leaves, my print is called "Bamboo Ocean" ( 竹海 ), the literal and so beautiful translation from Chinese of a bamboo forest. Thanks @ll.zhou for her enlightening translation✨ (at Photographic Center Northwest)

[clairesdarkroom]

People like defined divisions and stark separations and crisp categories. But Nature, she likes things messy. Intertwined, blurred borders, all together. And in the end, she always wins.

[clairesdarkroom]

“Is the soul solid, like iron? 

Or is it tender and breakable, like 

the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl? 

Who has it, and who doesn't?

I keep looking around me. 

The face of the moose is as sad as the face of Jesus. 

The swan opens her white wings slowly. 

In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness. 

One question leads to another. 

Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg? 

Like the eye of a hummingbird? 

Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop? 

Why should I have it, and not the anteater 

who loves her children? 

Why should I have it, and not the camel? 

Come to think of it, what about the maple trees? 

What about the blue iris? 

What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight? 

What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves? 

What about the grass?” 

- Mary Oliver, Some Questions You Might Ask

[clairesdarkroom]

Thanks @rawartistsseattle for the feature😊 #repost @rawartistsseattle: MEET OUR ARTIST // Claire's Darkroom​ @clairesdarkroom " I discovered magic in the darkroom while creating my first silver gelatin print. As I watched the image gradually emerge—an image made not by ink but by salts, metal, light, and inspiration—I experienced an eclipse of the perceptual filters..." Come support local art at our RAW Seattle show 6/23 at Studio 7. 18+ from 7-11pm. Tickets: http://www.rawartists.org/clairesdarkroom #seattle #rawseattle #rawartists #seattleart #seattleartists (at Seattle, Washington)

[clairesdarkroom]

Lavender // lumen of lavender comparative. The full moon summer solstice is tonight. First time since the summer of love in 1967. Lavender is in full bloom. This is my alchemical and botanical tribute to this beautiful and rare event. I believe in the good things coming.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/400866061/one-of-a-kind-original-lumen-print-gold?ref=shop_home_active_1

[clairesdarkroom]

No darkroom today- using natures lightroom instead🌞🌾. My first ever lumen print is underway! #fingerscrossed #longshot2016 #summersolstice #lavender #botanicalart

[clairesdarkroom]

Film Photography Hemp Notecards - Water Series - Set of 8 - Limited Edition

Water has long been my muse, in both the art of film photography and in the art of life. This series is dedicated to this invaluable life source in its gentleness, majesty, strength, grace, and infinite wisdom. I took these images using a 35mm analog camera in Belize, Montana, Florida, Arkansas, and Washington State. Photos are printed from original negatives onto Fujifilm Crystal Archive paper using a wet digital process and mounted on sustainably sourced hemp fiber notecards.

[clairesdarkroom]

Vernal equinox #cherryblossoms

[clairesdarkroom]

Faded memories of last summer with @sqrldwrld . Summer is once again almost upon us, and the mountains are waiting🌄 #filmphotography #filmforever #hikingadventures

[clairesdarkroom]

How Art Heals

It has long been observed that art can profoundly influence emotions and even the physical body. Stendhal syndrome (aka hyperkulturemia) was named after the 19th century French author, who describe…

I wrote a thing💗🎨

[clairesdarkroom]

We Are But Dew Drops, Infinite

We lose ourselves in a sea of light,

as drops of dew strung together on a quivering web of silk…

How do you melt water?

Transcend the laws that constrain you

[clairesdarkroom]

Indra's Web Print - Film Photography -Thai Spider- 10 x 15"

I took this photograph while hiking from temple to temple in the mountains of Northern Thailand. In the Avatamsaka Sutra (one of the most important sutras of East Asian Buddhism), the image of "Indra's net" is used to describe the interconnectedness of the universe. Indra's net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels. It represents the interpenetration of the microcosmos and macrocosmos.

[clairesdarkroom]

Indra's Web.

Spiders are integral to our ecosystems. These crafty arachnids munch on everyone's favorite insect: the mosquito. They weave such amazing silk. Have you ever felt that liquidy fabric glide across your skin? There is all this amazing research coming out about how spiders play their webs like guitars and if that's not magical I don't know what is ( http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-06-03-spiders-know-meaning-web-music). Hindu and Buddhist teachings chose spider webs to illustrate the interconnectedness of the universe. Did I mention spiders eat mosquitos? Without spiders, insects would probably eat all our food and we would starve. Many people think they don't like spiders, but maybe they just don't quite understand them.

The large print can be purchased at https://www.etsy.com/listing/270046486/indras-web-print-film-photography-thai

[clairesdarkroom]

"Theta Waves" #photogram

A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The usual result is a negative shadow image that shows variations in tone that depends upon the transparency of the objects used.

For this photogram, I used objects that help to put me in that mindstate of meditation along with objects that are symbolic to me of that feeling and internal process.

[clairesdarkroom]

I spy with my little eye ... a humpback. S/he's diving in front of a hump🐋 #whale #whaletail #humpback #photography