Featured Photographer: Liz Potter - "A Tornado of Sketches"
It’s rumored from a trusted source at All Through a Lens podcast that Texas-based artist, Liz Potter, has craft stations in each room of her Alpine home for moments whenever inspiration strikes. With a background in photojournalism, Liz returned to her first love of fine-art photography during the recent pandemic, setting up a darkroom in her “bizarrely huge 1980s-style bathroom, windows blocked with black cloth, and the bathtub and shower becoming the water source for [her] archival washer.” It is in this time-capsule space where she processes, experiments with, and documents results, spending hours getting lost in her craft.
“When I first start to set up trays and mix chemicals, it feels like a drag, but then I slip in the first negative into the enlarger, and the excitement and anticipation kick in hard. My print sessions can last anywhere from four hours to eight and sometimes the only reason I stop is when my print washer is full, and I have to pause long enough to realize I’m tired. Printing, to me, is another layer of expressing an image.”
Her camerawork started with her beloved Holga, which she used on photo shoots as a freelancer for the Austin Chronicle (“ahhh…Austin in the ‘90s!”), but each camera directs how she approaches a project. A Pentax 67 takes her “back to her roots” in documentary photography, while the Noblex 150 Pro is used for panoramic self-portraits. Her pinhole camera records time during the pandemic having what she describes as a “creative freakout,” helping her to cope with the isolation and worldwide chaos by getting out of the house and easing her mind.
Liz’s silver gelatin prints are perfectly balanced, with crisp black-and-white tones and surreal composition that elevates the everyday: a young girl cradled in a tree, her feet reaching out to a curious deer; a group of teenagers running through a field, seemingly oblivious to the giant fire to the left of the frame; a white-tiled bathroom with a scorpion nestled in the sink, its tail curled into a question mark. There is an indelible sense of the Texan landscape in Liz’s imagery, and viewers can feel how much she loves this vast expanse of land through her lens. “The connection [to place] is very strong, and I feel bound completely to this region, my experiences in nature, and the exhilarating freedom of living in a sparsely populated area make me want to express this connection in my work. It’s a way for me to not only document places that feel like home, even if they’re in a tent, hours away from my house, but also document how the landscape around me feels in the moment.”
More recently, Liz has been working on complicated Polaroid emulsion lifts onto glass plates, which she later uses in the darkroom to make large paper-negative print positives. She shares her darkroom trials and successes on Instagram, connecting to her audience with knowledge, humor (she’s hilarious!), and an infectious love for photography: one can’t help but be inspired by her boundless energy, skill, and creativity.
“There’s always a tornado of sketches, notes, and influences that I can pluck from when clarity starts to form around an idea; I never discount any thought I have, I tuck it away for when it’s time to push it further, add complexity to it, or work it into another idea, “ says Liz. “ So much inspires me it’s almost too much to put into a list.”
GALLERY
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Liz Potter is an artist and photographer living in Alpine, Texas. From a Canon A1, to a Holga, Pentax 67, Horizon 202, Pentacon Six, Perkeo II, pinhole, Noblex 150 Pro, and Polaroid, it’s always been film. She earned a degree in photojournalism from the University of Texas-Austin in 1990 and though the world of photography moved on to digital, she did not. She develops and prints her black-and-white photography in her home darkroom. You can find more of her work at www.lizpotterphotography.com and on Instagram @lizpotterphotography.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa Toboz is a self-taught, Pittsburgh-based artist with a background in writing and literature. Her work explores self-portraiture and creativity as a form of healing using various Polaroid cameras and film. She is inspired by vernacular photography, Victorian spirit photography, and ‘70s supernatural cinematography, as well as reading fiction. Her recent photo books include Dwell (Polyseme, 2020) and The Long Way Home (Static Age UK, 2018). Her Polaroid photography can be found in various publications including Shots Magazine, as a featured artist in She Shoots Film: Self Portraits, and Polaroid Now (Chronicle Books, 2021). A copy editor by trade, she has exhibited internationally and is represented by photographer Stefanie Schneider’s Instantdreams Gallery (Palm Springs, CA).
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