18 Jill Metcoff

From Wisconsin prairies to serene Bhutanese mountains, these are captured on film and become archival silver gelatin prints in my “wet” darkroom. I have worked with film and antique and traditional cameras for decades, producing these handmade black and white prints.
I am captivated by the use of fire in prairie restoration, fusing art about fire with my interest in prairie restoration in a recent book FIRELINES (University of New Mexico Press).
Combining art with themes of land management over decades, I photographed, for example, The Aldo Leopold Shack and its environs, Sandhill cranes and their moment of intersection with the human world, and the natural and built worlds in a defunct 7,000 acre ammunition plant. Not least is the presence of Wisconsin humor featuring wacky taxidermy.
Nowadays I find that I can say more about my inner experience by creating narrative collages which include multiple photographs and other media. During the pandemic I began to work with my collection of found wood, creating large scultptures.

I look forward to demonstrating in my on-site “wet” darkroom how black and white pictures grow from film into prints.