The Wild Beauty

I started making lumen prints during the pandemic last year. I couldn’t go out to photograph due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Doing lumen prints allowed me to find materials close to home without traveling far. I started paying more attention to my surroundings, especially to things that I’ve taken granted for, like flowers and plants in my backyard or in my neighborhood. Using them as the subject matter to make art. Lumen print gives those flowers different and unique beauty that I can’t see with my bare eyes. I use Ilford cool tone paper and a contact frame for my lumen project. The contact frame compresses the subject really tight onto the paper, thus brings out more details from the flower; also compression keeps the water in the frame from evaporation and creates the texture that is like a painting stroke.