Working with experimental approaches to photography that are inspired by early analogue techniques, Sydney-based artist Holly Schulte’s practice is centred around light and its absence in the production of images. “I am interested in light as an element for creation in the photographic process,” she says. “The darkroom, like the studio, is an environment for expressing the possibilities of light.” Using plants and flora that she has collected – usually preferring samples that are underappreciated or often missed such as weeds – she uses chemistry and happenstance to create unique images of the natural world. The samples are pressed directly to photographic paper and then exposed to light, quite literally translating substance into shadow. Though influenced by 19th and early 20th Century botanists, she does not seek to create a scientific facsimile of her subjects, but rather capture their essence, physicality or translucency. Her works allow the audience to look closer at the many natural wonders that surround us, using their absence to appreciate their existence. Through these ghostly imprints of living things Schulte immortalises the unseen by pushing the boundaries of photography.
Featured image: Holly Schulte, Emergence (332), 2021-22. Unique silver gelatin photograph, 20.3 x 25.4cm. Courtesy: the artist.