Cynthia Stallings

Cynthia Stallings discovered alternative process photography in the 1980s. After a digital hiatus, she returned to film, producing cyanotypes with rich tonal range. Her recent portraits and abstracted everyday scenes explore personal expression and atmospheric environments.
From: Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA
Shows: Cyanotypes

[Show slideshow]

Cynthia Stallings was introduced to Alternative Process Photography by chance. It was the last photography course taken through Pittsburgh Filmmakers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the mid 1980’s. Work at this time included mostly brown prints that were hand-colored. Since most of her work was made from large-format negatives, the detail was beautiful, and the work was small. Her 1985 work, entitled “Amagansett”, won best of show and was mentioned in Dialogue Magazine. The explosion of digital technology slowed down her creative process, and it was not until many years later that a return to very large-scale film negatives made the wonderful tonal range seen with Cyanotype possible.
The sampling of work shown in the gallery represents a few portraits from a large series where the subjects were asked to pose before the camera in any way they wished. Other works show the desire to capture everyday environments in a slightly abstract way.