Diana Bloomfield
Cyanotype / Gum Bichromate / Handmade books
“Such accomplished and beautiful work… precise, playful, clearly loved in the process of making. What I truly enjoyed was how many ways this work might be experienced in person especially if given the permission to hold and move the pages and complex elements that make up each piece. In the time-honored treasure and marriage of nature collected and archived, the work clearly demonstrates the artist’s love of the subject, the concept and the physical act of creating wonder as in the trompe l’oeil stacked pages (referencing the leaves in Whitman’s Leaves of Grass) A pleasure to look at look and experience.” Christopher James
Click on images to see an different view.
In awe of the creative talent that was Denis Roussel, I am continually inspired by the visual art he created in his lifetime. I value and appreciate both his vision and his ability to transform that vision into pure magic.
I never had the opportunity to meet Denis, but his art legacy reveals a person who had a unique way of seeing the world around him. And he managed, time after time, to create something extraordinary out of the seemingly mundane, gifting us with whole other possibilities in the way we might view our own surroundings. His always stunning art and his rare vision remain an inspiration.
So to be named Rfotofolio’s Denis Roussel Award winner for 2021 is truly an honor for me.
In my own photographic life, I have continually searched for ways to create photographic-based art that might move beyond the inherent limitations of this modern art form— whether that’s in pursuing 19th century photographic printing processes, using pinhole cameras, going camera-less— or transforming my photographic imagery from a 2-D to a 3-D art form— the creativepossibilities seem at once endless, exciting, and challenging. And what could be better?
Enormous gratitude goes to Jerry and Connie Rosenthal of Rfotofolio, for conceiving of this
Award and for the encouragement, validation, and honor that accompany it. By creating such a space and opportunity for contemporary alt process photographers, they keep Denis’s art and legacy very much alive. As individual artists themselves, and through Rfotofolio, their unwavering support of contemporary photographers and their clear-eyed recognition of photography as an art form are positively transformative.
I also especially thank esteemed juror, Christopher James, for his continued support, the
knowledge he freely shares with others, and for his insights. His thoughtful comments on
everyone’s impressive work were illuminating and went above and beyond.
And much appreciation also goes to all the sponsors of this Award, most especially to Josephine Sacabo.
I’m honored and thrilled with the Rfotofolio 2021 Denis Roussel Award, and to be among such fine photographic artists. Diana Bloomfield.
To learn more about the work of Diana Bloomfield please click on her name.
