Film-Based Land Art

Artist Statement

I am an Oakland-based land artist, archivist, historian, and darkroom instructor working in black-and-white film photography through sustainable, alternative darkroom processes equally in dialogue with place and medium. Since moving back to the Bay Area from New York in 2018, I have been exploring ways that reconnect me to my home state — along the way learning, questioning, and considering its complex histories with a sense of wonder spanning , bioregionalism, art and design history, archival methods, and darkroom-based graphic design.

I develop film and prints in my home darkroom, creating developer recipes using ingredients including foraged plants, collected rainwater, and low-toxicity household ingredients in place of traditional darkroom chemistry.

My photographic style often features landscapes and architecture through in-camera double exposures and in-darkroom graphic design. I pair developers with plants featured in, or that grow within the environments pictured. I see developing with plants as a circular process where the art I produce is as much about process as it is the final objects.

Beatrice holds a BA in art history and French from New York University and took darkroom courses at Parsons School of Design and NYU. She received an MA in decorative arts, design history, and material culture from Bard Graduate Center, and holds a certificate in archives and records management from Long Island University. She grew up in Mill Valley and lives in Oakland, CA. Her work is included in private collections and has been exhibited locally in the Bay Area.