“Wind” by Lesley Nowlin from Being a Twin: Elements
Austin fine art photographer Lesley Nowlin was chosen as one of four artists for the upcoming exhibition: Face Value opening September 6th at Davis Gallery. Lesley will be showing images from her series in progress: Being a Twin.
Lesley, a twin herself, has been exploring that relationship through her photographic work using traditional, modern, and alternative photographic processes. Lesley shared this intimate project with my twin and me when she photographed us a few months ago.
How did you get started in photography?
My dad played around with photography when I was young, as well as my grandfather and great grandmother. When I was about 14 I remember my dad teaching me how to read a light meter on a Leica rangefinder. After that I started photographing sports and yearbook events during high school. I learned how to develop and print silver gelatin in a tiny darkroom at Westwood High School. After going to the Maine Photographic Workshop during my junior year of high school I then chose to attend the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. That was when I fell in love with art.
Tell me about your interest and education in alternative processes.
During my time at HAS we were required as art majors to learn all the mediums. I really enjoyed printmaking and drawing, although I was never really good at it. Back in my college years we were on the brink of transitioning into digital, but everything we did was still very much produced in the darkroom. I loved getting my hands dirty and watching the image appear on the paper. Creating something from scratch and the printing process itself is the true art quality I love so much. However, that being said, I’ve turned to digital shooting, yet stuck with printing platinum and silver. With the format I’m creating in this current work the digital image is much easier to work with. I still love film for documentary and street photography, but I’m not currently working in that environment.
I loved getting my hands dirty and watching the image appear on the paper.
After opening a photography gallery in 2009-2011 I realized everything I fell in love with from other photographers was created with the alternative process, whether it was silver gelatin, salt, cyanotype, or platinum. After closing the gallery I decided to pursue the alternative process for myself and studied at Maine Media Workshop with Brenton Hamilton. He taught me how to print platinum, as well as other processes, using digital negatives. I’ve been working on it for the last 2 years on my own trying to master the craft, although I have a long way to go.
How long have you been working on the twin series and how has the meaning evolved since you started working on it?
I started the series actually when attending the Maine Media Workshop back in 2002 (for the second time). I had an instructor, Stella Johnson, who helped me create a project for myself. We had to plan shooting our subject(s) before we got there. I wanted to work on something for that week that was closely related to me. Up until that point I was more of a street photographer, and liked to travel and “shoot what I saw” on my international adventures. At the beginning of the “Being a Twin” project I was trying to connect in my own relationship with my twin by studying the connections of other twins and how they related to each other. I learned a lot with my 10 years of photographing twins. About two years ago I drew on the fact that I loved art so much, and wanted to start making more narrative and composed pieces. I’m drawn to painters like Gustav Klimt and John Waterhouse, and photographers like Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison and Luis Gonzales de Palma. Their ability to create a surreal environment with the human subject, very spiritual and ethereal, really drew me in. I wanted to incorporate that direction in my own work, while still making it mine. I’m photographing the twins (mostly female) in environments of nature to show their spiritual connection, as well as a tension and ease between the two. Then, I’m printing platinum on vellum and lining it with composition gold, silver or copper leaf. Printing the negatives separately and then putting it back together creates a broken and mosaic like quality. It’s very fun to do, as well as time consuming. No pieces will be the same, and that’s what I enjoy most about it. I’ve also been learning a lot as I continue to make different pieces. My process has been getting more precise as I go along.
I was trying to connect with my own relationship with my twin by studying the connections of other twins and how they related to each other.
How did you come to be a part of the Face Value exhibition at Davis Gallery?
Bill Davis is a very kind person who I’ve known for a while. I knew the curator of the show, Christina Martell, who left shortly after, and Susannah Morgan took over. They were putting together a show of different portraiture work, and asked me to participate. At first I was going to make individual platinum prints of my original “Being a Twin” work. But then I grabbed the opportunity to show my new vision of where I wanted this work to go, and that’s when “Being a Twin: Elements” was created. Ultimately, I’m very happy I’m able to have a show with a group. It gave me the chance to start this new work at a slower pace.
What are your future plans for photography? Do you have any other photo projects that you are working on?
My goal is to create 15-20 pieces for a solo show somewhere. The most challenging part of owning a photography gallery in Austin, for me, was that I didn’t know how to create clients. I had a ton of photographers asking to show their work, and I didn’t have enough time or finances to do it. After about a year I realized owning a gallery was not the career for me. Creating my own work was more important. It would be wonderful to have a photography gallery in Austin, but I don’t feel there’s a market here for it, which is unfortunate. There are many great photographers in Austin and only a few places to exhibit. Davis Gallery is kind enough to have a show specifically for photography and mixed media, but most art galleries in Austin view the medium of photography as an entirely different art form, and maybe aren’t willing to go out of their comfort zone to learn more about it. More than likely I’ll have to go outside of my hometown to find an exhibition space for “Being a Twin: Elements”. Really hoping someone will want to show it!
You’ll definitely want to see these pieces in person. Face Value closes October 18th, 2014.
