Lisa Elmaleh | |
|---|---|
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| Born | July 20, 1984 Miami, Florida |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | BFA, School of Visual Arts |
| Website | https://www.lisaelmaleh.com/ |
Lisa Elmaleh is an American visual artist, educator, and documentarian based in Hampshire County, West Virginia. She specializes in large-format photography using tintype, glass negative, and celluloid film. Since 2007, she has been traveling across the United States documenting American landscapes, life, and culture.
Born in Miami, Florida 1984 [1] Elmaleh grew up in a small apartment with her mother on a limited income. Her father was a photographer who worked with landscapes; Elmaleh recalls watching him develop photographs in a darkroom, saying "the magic of the images...stuck with me". [2] She attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2007. [3]
Elmaleh creates tintype photographs, learning the collodion process in 2007. Her preferred camera is the Century Universal; she uses a Schneider Kreuznach 300mm lens. [4] The wet collodion process means that images must be shot and developed while the chemicals are still wet on the plate. [5] Many of her photographs focus on Appalachian folk musicians. She converted a Toyota Tacoma truck into a mobile darkroom —driving to meet her subjects. [1] Because of the time constraints of the collodion process, Elmaleh develops the photographs within thirty minutes of taking them. Images are taken and developed one at a time. [5]
Some of Elmaleh's works include: [5]
She moved to Paw Paw, West Virginia from Brooklyn in 2014. [1]