Jeff Nelson

Jeff Nelson has been working with alt. proc. since 2015. Jeff likes experimenting with substrates and prints on a variety of papers.
From: California, USA.
Shows: Cyanotypes.

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Jeff Nelson is a working printer and artist in California, whose interest in the history of printmaking and photography led him to the alternative photography movement back in 2015. Since then, he has worked to rehabilitate the cyanotype as an art medium, believing that its capacity for great delicacy in tonal gradation and its ability to give reality a strange otherworldly cast is unmatched.

What initially drew Jeff Nelson to printing in Prussian blue was how hands-on the process was. As he studied its history, chemistry, aesthetics, and practice (see Mike Ware’s Cyanomicon), he began experimenting with his own blue monochrome images. Using the natural tannins found in wine, tea, coffee, oak and persimmon, the Jeff was able to change his cyanotype prints from deep blue to dark sepia among other tones. He has sampled an extensive variety of media, including a series of prints on handmade cotton, hemp, kozo, and abaca papers. The artists subject matter seeks to invite the viewer in, and to give form to these vague and mysterious feelings we have going on around us. By adding layers of drawings and collage, Jeff tries to create something that wasn’t there before, but is infused with lost moments. Jeff Nelson deeply appreciates what the platform AlternativePhotography.com is providing and is continually delighted by those who practice “re-invents” any alternative process as a means of creative expression.

“Art is yours, not some mysterious thing. Give it the attention and discipline it involves. Protect it. Venerate it. Art is a private culture; serene, beautiful and perfect in the ways that it ennobles individual reflection and contemplation. The most powerful thing a work of art can do is capturing the essence of whatever fleeting, nebulous something it seeks to give form to.”

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