Anne Arden McDonald

 Anne Arden McDonald is an American photographer who was born in 1966 in Georgia. She started photographing very young and continued that for over 15 years, specializing in self-portraits in abandoned buildings and spaces. She has also experimented quite a bit in lumen printing, and using different chemicals on photo papers, then exposing them to sunlight to develop them. She has had her work shown in many galleries, the Brooklyn Museum, the Houston MFA, and more.

The first work by McDonald I am choosing to talk about is this one. One thing I really like about this piece is the colors produced, especially the blues and purples that come through. I am assuming this is the print before it got mixed because I think those colors would probably not be as vibrant after going through the fixing procedure. I also love how organic the shape is of her print is and how it’s all the same organic circle shapes. This print reminds me a lot of like a water puddle of like bubbles coming to the surface in a pond, and it gives off a very serene feeling for the viewer.

The second piece I am choosing to talk about is this one. Although it is a different color scheme and has a lot of different textures, I think this piece would fit great in a series with the last one I talked about. They both follow the organic circle theme very well, and they look cohesive. I also really love the colors of this piece, and it looks more like this one could have been fixed to achieve the orange-ish tint. I like this speckled texture of this one a lot, and I also really like the white streaks going across the middle of the page, and I think the white and black is a good contrast on the orange that pulls the viewer in.

Overall, I think McDonald’s lumen printings are quite impressive. It’s impossible to predict what will happen and if your paper will develop correctly, so I can imagine these prints without flaws probably took a lot of trials and attempts at the same thing over and over again, which I respect a lot.