Historical photographic methods in use today - the art, processes and techniques of alternative photography

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Elizabeth Opalenik is known for her sensual and poetic images in the mordançage process, handpainted black and white, infrared films, Polaroid manipulations and specialized toning. With limitless creativity Elizabeth has found her voice as a photographic artist, learning that all good photographs are self-portraits that lie somewhere between imagination and dreams.

Elizabeth was raised on a farm outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, living as a neighbor to the Amish and their uncomplicated ways. Her upbringing continues to reverberate in the personal images she creates. Her ongoing projects are as diverse as her life experience, whether a figure study draped in fabric or the emulsion veils she creates in mordançage, a serene black and white photograph of Amish daily life, or images that capture fluid, watercolor-like grace expressing her childhood dreams of becoming a dancer. She lives in the Bay Area of San Francisco, CA.

A highly sought after educator, she teaches workshops Internationally, is in museum and private collections throughout the world and her work has been featured in numerous magazines and books on photography. In 2007, she published her first monograph Poetic Grace - Elizabeth Opalenik Photographs 1979-2007. The book, featuring many mordançage images, combines three bodies of work intertwined by water.

"I am dedicated to continue exploring and expanding the mordançage images that Jean Pierre Sudre pioneered and perfected. What takes time to create, time respects - some of these images may take hours to complete and then only after days of failure to get one that I love. Sudre once said "you must let your heart and soul enter into this" for the process to work. Not only has my heart and soul entered, but remains firmly planted."