Phottery

In addition to handcrafted pottery, throwing on the wheel and molding, I’ve spent many years exploring the dynamic of combining analog photography and ceramics.

 

Anchored in traditional tried methods, I make handcrafted pin-hole cameras out of clay, and take photos with them.

 

The photographs are then transferred to ceramic tiles using liquid emulsion in my darkroom. I work with both basic, liquid emulsion as well as experimenting with alternative methods, using for example Cyanotype and Van Dyke.

 

Ever since my project Phottery was first introduced in 2003, at the Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts Triennial (and later purchased and added to the collection at the Norwegian National Museum), Phottery has come to be a major part of my work and creative process. 

 

I find many resemblances between the process of making analog photography and pottery, while also considering the gap between three dimensional objects and the two-dimensional flat surfaces. Combining and presenting work of photography and handcrafted objects has been a common theme in many of my exhibitions.

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Cecilie Haaland, 2023