Diana Bloomfield The Old Garden February 2021/ May 2021
Runs 3rd February 2021 to 9th May 2021
Bloomfield’s painstaking tri-color gum bichromate technique of layering three hues in perfect register imbues her prints with a nuanced, muted palette, at once refined and earthy. Bloomfield’s photographs are faded tributes to past glory: each fragile flower performs its unique swan song in vignette, a dulcet sonata of texture and form . . .– Elin Spring, What Will You Remember , November 27, 2018
As part of my mission to create handmade art each day for a year, I began this series in 2018, purely by accident. The Old Garden honors my own Southern garden, which I view clearly from my back windows, and that of my grandmother’s, now seen only in my mind’s eye. Etched in deep faded hues, our gardens mingle, intertwine, and overlap. These flowers – although now permanently fixed as pigment encased in hardened gum arabic – remain, like my memories, as ephemeral as ever. Diana Bloomfield
An exhibiting photographer for over thirty-five years, Diana has received numerous awards for her images, including a 1985 New Jersey State Visual Arts Fellowship, and five Regional Artist Grants from the United Arts Council of Raleigh, North Carolina, most recently for 2015-16. She was named a Critical Mass Finalist in 2014, 2018, and, most recently, in 2019.
Specializing in 19th century printing techniques, Diana’s images have been included in a number of books, including Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique (2004), by Eric Renner; Robert Hirsch’s Exploring Color Photography Fifth & Sixth Editions: From Film to Pixels (2011; 2015); in Jill Enfield’s Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes: Popular Historical and Contemporary Techniques; in Christopher James’ The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes (2015); and, most recently, in #NoFilter, by Natalia Price-Cabrera, published in May 2019.
She is a featured artist in Christina Z. Anderson’s Gum Printing: A Step-by-Step Manual, Highlighting Artists and their Creative Practice (2017); and in Clay Harmon’s Polymer Photogravure: A Step-by-Step Manual, Highlighting Artists & their Creative Practice (2019).
Her photographs have been featured in the Pinhole Journal; The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography; Chinese Photography; Shadow & Light (including front cover image); SxSE (South x Southeast); Diffusion; Dodho Photography Magazine, and Silvershotz (including front cover image). Her images have been included in The Sun Magazine (including front cover image) ; The HAND Magazine; and the North Carolina Literary Review.
As an independent curator, Diana has organized and curated several pinhole and alternative process exhibitions, including “Pure Light: Southern Pinhole Photography,” shown at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), in Winston-Salem, NC in 2004. And the exhibit,“Old is New Again: Alternative Processes,” which was originally shown at the Green Hill Center for NC Art, in Greensboro, NC, was invited for exhibition at the 2004 Pingyao International Photography Festival, in Pingyao, China. She was also an invited artist to the first Qinghai International Photography Festival, in Xining, China, where she exhibited in the summer of 2006.
Her art is in a number of public and private collections, including the Norton Museum of Art, located in West Palm Beach, Florida; The Fine Art Program and Collection at Montefiore Einstein, in Bronx, New York; New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and North Carolina State University’s Gregg Museum of Art & Design, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
A native North Carolinian, Diana lives and works in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she received her MA in English Literature and Creative Writing from North Carolina State University. She teaches workshops throughout the country, and in her beautiful backyard studio.
Diana is represented by the Ryan Gallery at Art Intersection, located in Gilbert, Arizona.