Emily White is an artist and educator based in Richmond, Virginia. She works with large format film, in addition to tintypes and glass negatives using the wet plate collodion process. Frequently, she can be found setting up her mobile darkroom along bucolic back roads and hazy riverbeds, working with hands and light to capture a disappearing reality. Emily uses historic processes and modern tools to create contemporary work, forming an anachronistic hybrid that pays tribute to traditional masters. Much of her work explores the relationships between memory, place and identity; as well as engages with the liminal spaces where urban development confronts wilderness.
Within City Limits
Within City Limits documents and explores the liminal spaces where urban development and wildness collide. It examines the conflicting interests that meet in, as well as pays homage to the untamed beauty that exits in, our daily surroundings. All images are taken within the city boundaries of Richmond, Virginia and explore the possibilities of being immersed in nature without leaving the urban confines. Within City Limits seeks to engage in conversations of man’s impact and reimagines constructed environments. These photographs were created using the wet plate collodion process to make tintypes and glass negatives, as well as with large format film. By using historic processes to document the narrative of each space, the landscape is placed in the context of traditional landscape portraiture – iconic and mighty. To confront the grandeur of these spaces in our immediate surroundings, one must also consider their use and integrity. These landscapes serve as geographical, biographical and metaphorical displays of man’s relationship with the land.
To view more of Emily White’s work please visit her website.