Elizabeth Opalenik
This interview is one of those previously available to anyone who had yet to purchase a copy of Edition 5 of Analog Forever Magazine, where it originally ran, and is now sold out. I’m long overdue in getting this to the online masses, and for that, I am sorry. And I’m sorry because it is chock full of great information from the one and only Elizabeth Opalenik.
One could say that Elizabeth might be responsible for taking the mordençage process, not just to new heights of creativity, but bringing it to so many individuals who’ve made it a part of their creative process as well, for she is one of those educators who makes the time to bring an understanding of this unique process and what it can do, beyond simply teaching the “how to” portion. I’m not going to explain mordençage here–I’ll let Elizabeth explain it in her own words, and then I want you all to read up on it more. It’s wild. I mean, when I first saw a print in person, I simply did not get what had happened to it to make it appear the way it did. I know more about it now than ever before (though I will admit to not trying it…yet), and I still sort of think it’s a printing method about as uncommon as could be.
I will include a short passage from my original intro because it speaks volumes:
“As an artist of intense curiosity for the photographic medium, Opalenik is equally adept at creating landscapes, figure studies, and still-life imagery using [her] methods. Additionally, as an educator and workshop instructor, she makes herself available to guide others through this incredible process, thereby furthering the intention of future generations of photographic artists in pushing the envelope even more.”
But it’s not a technical process that we need to talk about. As always, this is about the creative process. It’s about an artist who is talented, giving, and humble. There’s over 40 years of experience behind the words and images of Elizabeth Opalenik, which is something to take notice of. This is where we learn and grow.
Bio -
I left home in 1969 to the sound of peace marches and my mother saying, "I knew you were different from the time you were two." From the farm in western Pennsylvania to the shores of Connecticut, I slowly started to evolve as an artist from my former lives managing the accounting department for Continental Oil Company, managing jazz clubs, and as "A MS-Placed Lady" in my construction/design company. In 1979, after a two-week photographic workshop in Maine, I sold everything and never looked back.
I am a photographic artist, educator, mordançeuse, and freelance photographer traveling the world with my camera, and I love it. Philanthropic projects keep me grounded and connected universally.
I believe that all good photographs are self-portraits and know that my many former lives manifest themselves in my images. My heart remains in my darkroom working in the Mordançage process, but I use today's technology when appropriate to explore all the creative paths.
Interview -
Michael Kirchoff: Thank you for joining me here, Elizabeth. I appreciate the time you've given us to do this interview. I'd like to start at the beginning of your career and ask what led you to the photographic arts in the first place.
Elizabeth Opalenik: Thank you for inviting me, Michael. I think in 1979, I was at a crossroads in my life. Thirty-two, newly single, wondering who I really was. A friend was going to the Maine Photographic Workshops and showed me the catalog. I was captivated and enrolled in a two-week intermediate darkroom class that turned out to be so much more. I went, my friend didn’t. It changed my life, and in the end, I enrolled in the three-month resident program. No looking back, no regrets.
MK: Looking back, what is the one thing you wish you knew when you started making photographs?
EO: I wish I knew more about art in general… sculpture, paintings, history of photography, and all those that came before me. Not to copy but to be inspired. I had only a high school education, was raised on a farm, and was schooled in common sense and life lessons. We all need to find our own way, but inspiration is a lovely thing.
MK: What is it that drives you as a creator of photographs?
EO: Curiosity and definitely a what-if attitude. I love breaking the rules, though I never really learned them. If I weren’t a photographer, I’d be a printmaker. I love handmade papers and utilize them, even in my photography.
MK: What we're showing here are many examples of your work using the mordançage process. Before we get into that a bit more, I wanted to recognize that you have always been very clear about how and who is responsible for your introduction and learning of this unique and beautiful way of creating art. Your working relationship with its inventor, Jean-Pierre Sudre, is now the stuff of legend. Beyond the process itself, how did this initiation change you and your work?
EO: I do feel like I came home creatively when I first saw Sudre’s work and then later took a workshop from him in the mordançage process. I loved all the possibilities, especially that I could lift those veils of emulsion and rearrange them. It was exciting, and I don’t believe anyone had tried to really do that in the process before. At least Sudre was surprised and tried to talk me out of the hours spent altering what he was teaching, and then he was very delighted and supportive of all my efforts. In any process, it is wonderful to break barriers and explore a new way of working. It is good for the soul, especially if done with intent.
MK: For most, mordançage is a beautiful and mysterious process with a steep learning curve. Can you give us a clear idea of what this process is and what it can bring to someone's work in terms of feeling and uniqueness?
EO: First, especially when saving the veils of emulsion, each piece is unique. In the age of digital reproduction, for me, that is nice. By just changing developer, paper, and redeveloper combinations, you alter the outcome. You can “accept” many results, but “controlling" them with intent leads to even more discoveries. I like that aspect. I liked it even more when we had more silver in the papers and more papers available. Developers I can make from a formula, but papers I have to buy and there are fewer available today. I am really intrigued with the floating veils… like dressing the paper cut-out dolls of my childhood. It is a challenge to make them elegant or use them alone to just create their own motion… as in a landscape or creating energy, like wind, in a photogram. I took a mordançage workshop with Sudre in 1991, learned the basics, and by print five in the class I was trying to save the veils of silver-floating emulsion. It took me hours working on the first print, but I was determined and, to his surprise, succeeded. The next day, he asked for all my notes and for me to sign that print to him. I use the emulsion to express my emotions or to “dress” my model in the veils. I had previously worked with Polaroid emulsion lifts, but silver gelatin is completely different and so very fragile! In 1995, Jean-Claude Lemagny of Bibliothèque Nationale actually told me to throw away the negatives and continue to work with just the veils. I often did and still do, and one day, I will release that series.
MK: I previously mentioned uniqueness in making mordançage prints. Indeed, each one is its own creation without any natural way to duplicate a second print. So, in making your work, do you create any kind of an edition with it? I suppose either with scanning a final print and making duplicates from that, or maybe making similar prints that are close in execution but still exclusive in their own right?
EO: I think, because I am known for mordançage, that people prefer my original 1/1… they are three-dimensional when viewed and gorgeous. But they also now reproduce beautifully as digital prints, which are acceptable and stable today, but those do not have the silver and matte quality of originals. I may do an edition of five or 10 from each original, perhaps in a different or larger size. The largest veiled original image I have made has been 16 x 20. That is a lot of emulsion to control floating in water. I prefer to just make another image from the same negative and know it will be different each time. That is the beauty.
MK: In addition to being a working artist, you conduct a large part of your career doing workshops in various parts of the world. In fact, it's such a part of you that during the pandemic-induced lockdowns when you were not able to do them, you instead put together the photographs and stories of many other photographers in a beautiful book called Workshop Stories. What is it about workshops that connect so many talented people in educating others in their mastered skill set? Also, what do you get out of doing them yourself?
EO: I think photography workshops, or any kind of workshops for that matter, move any artist forward in a way as though being projected from a rocket. What a boost in a short amount of time versus a university semester. You are so focused in a workshop, so exposed to yourself and new ideas, and so out of your element at times… especially if you have a good teacher…nudging, prodding, and asking you to fail. Failure is fabulous. It leads to new ways of thinking. There are no mistakes in workshops, only opportunities to begin again. To quote Greg Heisler from Workshop Stories, “It was an invaluable incubator for ideas and an intense crucible for crafting them.” Personally, I get energized, and I love to share. I and many other teachers, get as much as they give.
MK: Your photographs have been the source of inspiration for so many, but what is it that inspires you?
EO: Life inspires me. Water certainly… a million jewels of dewdrops or the most powerful force reflecting life or swallowing it. It transforms everything it touches. The unique beauty of each snowflake, like crystallizations, fascinates me. The beauty of a bird taking flight. The grace of light falling off any subject. The elegant, sensual curve of any body shape. I also work on humanitarian eye projects in South America, and I am constantly inspired by the resilience of good people.
MK: You've been making photographs for close to 40 years at this point. During that time, you've witnessed and been affected by the digital photography revolution. Have you seen this as a detriment or more positive progress? What do you feel is the future for analog materials in the photographic marketplace when we continue to see the decreasing availability of both films and gelatin silver papers?
EO: I was not someone that took well to digital for many years. A previous head injury made it a steep learning curve for me, and I really do prefer one-of-a-kind images. That said, it has opened a whole new world to explore and has opened beautiful images to so many more people. Being surrounded by beauty is a good thing. Like any new tool, just because you can doesn’t mean you should, and artists are utilizing the tools to their advantage now. Throughout art history, we have gone through new phases and explorations. I certainly did it with mordançage, and my works with reflections are just another way of seeing. Almost all my work is still made in-camera. I don’t know a lot of Photoshop tools, and I am old school that way. I know my edges, rarely crop, and see complicated layers while pushing the shutter. Film-trained, I guess. And I see a future for film and alternative processes still. Digital negatives have opened new doors to many. Making art, any art, is good. People will always find a way, from cave paintings to making prints in the darkroom, on a computer, or out in the sun with a piece of glass.
MK: What do you feel is the best way for you to grow as an artist? Are there any fears of treading new waters?
EO: For me, time is what I need. I am always in new waters, and maybe that is part of the problem. Everything interests me, so I don’t complete projects. I’ve drawers full of what-if projects. Certainly, every time I start in mordançage again, I go down another rabbit hole of possibilities. Most of my friends say I never have to make a new image, and I have so many I have never looked at twice… including a dozen years of digital hard drives I have only gone through, often once.
MK: A photographic life is often one fraught with time management difficulties. You are quite often making new work, traveling, conducting workshops, and making plans for all of these things from day to day. How do you manage it all, and do you consider yourself a workaholic?
EO: I have always been a workaholic and used to be better at multitasking. Priorities change, and in the pandemic, I was excited for the lockdown time to explore my own work but started on Workshop Stories, not realizing how altered all our lives would be. That became 15 months of 10-hour days exclusively to that. I am ready to spend that much time now on my work as I transition out of the heavy workshop teaching schedule. I never did get into Zoom teaching, and I doubt I will.
MK: In speaking to future generations of photographers, do you have any words of wisdom for those setting out to make their mark in the photographic world?
EO: Be true to yourself. I think it is harder to make a living as we did earlier, but the younger generation has figured out how to capitalize in ways we never considered. I think they will find their way, but always be true to yourself, for all good photographs are self-portraits. Integrity is your best tool.
MK: What's next for you? I don't imagine you'll be sitting back with your feet up now that the production and shipping of Workshop Stories is complete. Anything new you have plans for?
EO: I am teaching workshops again starting in August and waiting for the world to be free for travel. A book of my own work or a series of handmade books is in the future. It has been nearly 15 years since I published Poetic Grace: Elizabeth Opalenik Photographs 1979-2007, which included many of my mordançage images and images made in water. I want to further explore carbon printing and started editing six or seven years of the eye project work for platinum prints. I love my garden, and for a while, I am sure I will be happy to just enjoy looking at the water and reflecting on life. Workshop Stories has been a good journey, just now coming to fruition, so connecting with everyone in that book has also been beautiful. It is nearly sold out, and that has a satisfying ring to it.
*This interview originally published in Analog Forever Magazine, Edition 5.
You can find more of Elizabeth’s work on her website here.
All photographs, ©Elizabeth Opalenik
