Pioneering Practices: Contemporary Female Photographers Working With Alternative Photo Processes
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 9:40 PM
Description
Laura Perdrizet, MFA, Artist & Scholar, New York City, U.S.A. >Pioneering Practices: Contemporary Female Photographers Working With Alternative Photo Processes
My paper presents a survey of contemporary female photographers who work with cyanotype and other alternative photographic processes; at once illustrating the aesthetics and issues related to their experimental practices. Inspired by English botanist and pioneering female photographer, Anna Atkins, this paper explores how women working in alternative photography today are innovators, exposing how experimentation and craft are prioritized as they practice in the margins.
Present day alt-photo practices embody the values of contemporary art: art-making is conceptually informed, materiality is central to the process and product, and experimentation is valued over tradition. Widely practiced in the 21st century, female artists are utilizing new technologies, tools, and experimental techniques to create new forms, and as a result are establishing new aesthetics in contemporary photography. Through interviews and artwork images, this presentation investigates the concept of “the pioneer,” addressing the embedded issues from past to present in gender equity and practice, shedding light on the artists’ innovations in photographic art and their resulting impact.
Artist/Scholar Laura Perdrizet is passionately invested in the future of Creative Practice Research. She has shared her work internationally, including exhibitions, screenings, performances, lectures, and publications that incite dialogs about space & place, memory, and interdisciplinarity in pedagogy & praxis. Most recent: The Work of Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence presented in the 2024 College Art Association Conference in the session, Revitalizing Visual Arts Education: The Impact of AI. Laura’s fine art photography series, Freedom//Gestures, was exhibited at Marillac Gallery in NYC, and her experimental screendance film, Nomadic Mythologies, was an Official Selection at the International Art Film Festival, Montreal Independent Film Festival, and an Award Winner at Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Madrid. In 2025 Laura’s parafictional essay exploring the nature of wonder in knowledge creation, Grey Area Aesthetics: Interstitial Space as Contemporary Center, was published in the book, Post-Rational Visuality, by Noxious Sector Press.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Perdrizet, Laura, "Pioneering Practices: Contemporary Female Photographers Working With Alternative Photo Processes" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 62.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/62
Pioneering Practices: Contemporary Female Photographers Working With Alternative Photo Processes
Laura Perdrizet, MFA, Artist & Scholar, New York City, U.S.A. >Pioneering Practices: Contemporary Female Photographers Working With Alternative Photo Processes
My paper presents a survey of contemporary female photographers who work with cyanotype and other alternative photographic processes; at once illustrating the aesthetics and issues related to their experimental practices. Inspired by English botanist and pioneering female photographer, Anna Atkins, this paper explores how women working in alternative photography today are innovators, exposing how experimentation and craft are prioritized as they practice in the margins.
Present day alt-photo practices embody the values of contemporary art: art-making is conceptually informed, materiality is central to the process and product, and experimentation is valued over tradition. Widely practiced in the 21st century, female artists are utilizing new technologies, tools, and experimental techniques to create new forms, and as a result are establishing new aesthetics in contemporary photography. Through interviews and artwork images, this presentation investigates the concept of “the pioneer,” addressing the embedded issues from past to present in gender equity and practice, shedding light on the artists’ innovations in photographic art and their resulting impact.
Artist/Scholar Laura Perdrizet is passionately invested in the future of Creative Practice Research. She has shared her work internationally, including exhibitions, screenings, performances, lectures, and publications that incite dialogs about space & place, memory, and interdisciplinarity in pedagogy & praxis. Most recent: The Work of Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence presented in the 2024 College Art Association Conference in the session, Revitalizing Visual Arts Education: The Impact of AI. Laura’s fine art photography series, Freedom//Gestures, was exhibited at Marillac Gallery in NYC, and her experimental screendance film, Nomadic Mythologies, was an Official Selection at the International Art Film Festival, Montreal Independent Film Festival, and an Award Winner at Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Madrid. In 2025 Laura’s parafictional essay exploring the nature of wonder in knowledge creation, Grey Area Aesthetics: Interstitial Space as Contemporary Center, was published in the book, Post-Rational Visuality, by Noxious Sector Press.
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