Laurie Beck Peterson
Swash, 2025
Cyano-Phytogram, backlit box
Frame: 12-1/2 x 15-1/2"

This unique piece is on ortho lith film and is fixed, but as with all film, colors and tones could shift over time.

Artist Statement
The phytogram print, Swash, is part of the exhibition Actinic Traces, a body of work that explores the quiet, transformative interactions between light, plants, and time. I invite sunlight, water, and organic matter to participate in image-making, blurring the boundary between artist and environment. This is a collaborative act with the more-than-human world.

When making a phytogram, plants are first used to make a plant-based developer and then are pressed onto light-sensitive film, where their own biochemical signatures of tannins, oils, moisture, etch abstract forms and textures onto the surface. The backlit box presentation illuminates the true qualities of film by allowing light to pass through, almost like looking through a microscope. This reveals magnified textures and details that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Bio

Laurie Beck Peterson (b. 1962) is a U.S.-based artist known for her work with 19th-century photographic processes. Her practice explores impermanence, ephemerality, and the cycles of growth and decay in the natural world. In her most recent projects, she incorporates sustainable, plant-based printing techniques that align with her environmental themes.

Peterson is currently on faculty at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, PA, where she teaches contemporary applications of historical photographic methods. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and is held in numerous public and private collections.

Notably, she was selected to exhibit at the Royal Photographic Society's International Photography Exhibition 164 (IPE 164) in Bristol, UK. In 2025 this work was also on view at The Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock Abbey and is now in the museums collection. Other exhibition venues include the Woodmere Art Museum, The Delaware Contemporary, FotoNostrum Gallery, and The Museum of Gloucester.

Her work has been featured in publications such as Rfotofolio, The Hand Magazine, Gum Printing: A Step-by-Step Manual, Santa Fe Photographic Workshop Portraits, and Anthotype Emulsions (Volumes 1 and 3) and most recently is featured in the book Eroding Forms, launched at the 2025 Ephemere Photo Fest, Tokyo, Japan. She is represented by UpStart Modern Gallery in Sausalito, California.

lauriebeckpeterson.com

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