Emily Swift
Studio 204
Darkroom Artist
emily@emilyswiftstudios.com
www.emilyswiftstudios.com
@shootswiftly_
ARTIST BIO/STATEMENT
Emily Swift is a darkroom artist and studio photographer working out of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Her studio practice explores the black and white darkroom print process, the scientific limits of it, as well as alternative processes.
Swift began studying the art and science of the darkroom at age 14 in her high school program in Monroe, Connecticut. She continued her studies and received her BA in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography from Western Connecticut State University in 2018. While still in school, Swift began working on assignments in New York City as a photojournalist for an international fashion TV network. This inspired her first studio in Bridgeport, CT that had a focus on studio portraiture. She spent 6 years working in the fashion industry until ultimately deciding to shift the focus of her work away from digital and back to analog. In 2021 she built her own darkroom in her studio and thus unlocked the beginning of her fine art career. What followed was an exploration of what happens when you bend the rules and get experimental in the darkroom.
In 2021 Emily also began processing film as a service for others through Darkslide Film lab. This work forced everything in her practice to be critically perfect. So when it came to her art, it became boring to execute perfect work. Once experimentation and rule breaking was involved in her own personal work, is when Emily truly started to feel like she was making Art. Emily Began adding new techniques like glass work and metal smithing to her darkroom practice and it unlocked a whole new world for her.
Emily's original works have been exhibited at international art festivals including Aqua Art Miami (Art Basel Week), ART x MTL #4 in Montreal, QC, and Superfine Art Fair in Washington, DC. Her work has been seen locally at "Celebrating Women in Life and Art" at the Ferguson Gallery in Stamford, CT, and "The Art of Emotion" at Comp-Stomp Studio NYC, as well as annually out of her studio for The Bridgeport Arts Trail.
Emily was internationally recognized and invited to Barcelona, Spain to attend Experimental Photo Festival 2024 as a keynote speaker, portfolio judge, and workshop educator. She spoke about working with liquid emulsion on glass at "The Support is the Message: Printing on Alternative Substrates," taught a workshop titled "Creating a 1/1 Chemigram Darkroom Print," as well as performed portfolio reviews for photographers across the world.
Emily Swift
ARTIST BIO/STATEMENT
Emily Swift is a darkroom artist and studio photographer working out of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Her studio practice explores the black and white darkroom print process, the scientific limits of it, as well as alternative processes.
Swift began studying the art and science of the darkroom at age 14 in her high school program in Monroe, Connecticut. She continued her studies and received her BA in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography from Western Connecticut State University in 2018. While still in school, Swift began working on assignments in New York City as a photojournalist for an international fashion TV network. This inspired her first studio in Bridgeport, CT that had a focus on studio portraiture. She spent 6 years working in the fashion industry until ultimately deciding to shift the focus of her work away from digital and back to analog. In 2021 she built her own darkroom in her studio and thus unlocked the beginning of her fine art career. What followed was an exploration of what happens when you bend the rules and get experimental in the darkroom.
In 2021 Emily also began processing film as a service for others through Darkslide Film lab. This work forced everything in her practice to be critically perfect. So when it came to her art, it became boring to execute perfect work. Once experimentation and rule breaking was involved in her own personal work, is when Emily truly started to feel like she was making Art. Emily Began adding new techniques like glass work and metal smithing to her darkroom practice and it unlocked a whole new world for her.
Emily's original works have been exhibited at international art festivals including Aqua Art Miami (Art Basel Week), ART x MTL #4 in Montreal, QC, and Superfine Art Fair in Washington, DC. Her work has been seen locally at "Celebrating Women in Life and Art" at the Ferguson Gallery in Stamford, CT, and "The Art of Emotion" at Comp-Stomp Studio NYC, as well as annually out of her studio for The Bridgeport Arts Trail.
Emily was internationally recognized and invited to Barcelona, Spain to attend Experimental Photo Festival 2024 as a keynote speaker, portfolio judge, and workshop educator. She spoke about working with liquid emulsion on glass at "The Support is the Message: Printing on Alternative Substrates," taught a workshop titled "Creating a 1/1 Chemigram Darkroom Print," as well as performed portfolio reviews for photographers across the world.
