Featured Photographer: Laura Barth’s Emulsion Elevate Alchemy

In the studio, the rigor of Laura Barth’s scientific background merges seamlessly with the intuitive, hands-on experimentation of the artist. “I just get into this space—the ‘I need to make art’ space. It’s hands-on and intuitive, but also I think it’s tethered to the ether somehow, to something bigger than us,” she says, describing the otherworldly present she faucets into. Barth, the scientist, confesses, “I work in the sciences and so I find myself saying, ‘This might sound crazy’ before disclosing I truly think there’s something bigger than us that we can tap into.” Her workflow, then, is a dialog between self-discipline and give up: evolving by means of cautious commentary and repeated trial, from sizzling water and brushes to colder water and her fingers for extra management, and now favoring 300-pound cold-press watercolor paper for its sturdiness. Barth treats her studio as each laboratory and sanctuary, continually testing the boundaries of temperature, materials, and methodology, whereas embracing the unpredictability of torn emulsions and unintentional overlays as integral to her remaining work. This is a follow rooted as a lot within the methodical as within the metaphysical, a each day balancing act the place science and artwork, management and instinct, skepticism and marvel, all discover a residence.

Her most up-to-date sequence, “40 Years,” technically and thematically, is a stark departure. In this current sequence, Barth strikes past previous documentation and use of colour and nature, as a substitute embracing black and white Polaroid movie as her main materials, usually taken in digital camera as a substitute of on the Polaroid Lab. As a end result, her work has turn into extra methodical but nonetheless retains the sense of play and instinct that defines her emulsion elevate follow. The monochrome palette permits Barth to concentrate on layering and manipulation, creating photos that resonate with a louder however extra minimal aesthetic. Her bodily manipulation of emulsion lifts has additionally progressed, with the torn borders, overlapping layers, and delicate distortions that operate as each visible interruptions and intentional compositional anchors.