Now Online: Watch Cazenave’s talk, view her recent photographs, and find the accessible reading list here

Alice Cazenave is a photo-artist, scholar, and the Project Lead of Sustainable Darkroom, a research community developing low toxicity photo-chemistries. For over a year, Cazenave conducted field research in Rochester as a part of her ongoing work to study how locally-sourced, plant-based ingredients can be made into environmentally sustainable photo-chemicals. While she has conducted similar research across the U.S., Cazenave was confronted with unique obstacles in Rochester where she engaged with the city’s complicated racial, social and colonial histories.

Beginning November 1st, a collection of Cazenave’s photographs will be available to view online at vsw.org. Each photograph was created in Rochester and developed using Rochester-sourced ingredients such as white corn, milk thistle growing in Kodak’s parking lot, and Genesee River water. The image selections show the variety of locations and techniques Cazenave creatively and resourcefully wielded to make each photograph.

These images are a small selection from the work Cazenave will share in her upcoming online artist conversation on November 14th. Cazenave will talk about her work, and what she’s learned from various communities in Rochester, including analog photographers, retired Kodak employees and the Haudenosaunee. Afterwards, she will speak with Hernease Davis, VSW Assistant Curator, about how her work is aiming to contribute to an anti-colonial history of photography. 

The VSW Salon is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts and by the ArtWorks program of the National Endowment for the Arts.