STOP DOWN :
A term in photography that refers to closing the aperture (opening) of your lens to allow less light to pass through which also causes more to be in focus. This is the highly focused overview of Embued Photophiles.
Embued Photophiles is not just for those who cherish the action and result of allowing light and time with the assist of a camera to capture and hold fast our quotidian moments (fractions of a second, technically speaking) as they pass. Embued Photophiles is also for those who wish to articulate and celebrate said transitory moments. I focus on the beauty of understated simplicity through my hand printed wares.
My process begins by framing through a viewfinder (anywhere, anytime, and sometimes even past times, places, people unknown) and ends in your hands, dear kindred spirit. My process is layered and slow, and I love the act of making as much as the things that I make. Made by myself, Beth Bates, a photography fanatic, a consumer of all things photographic, a photophile. My love for photography is steeped in this work. I shoot; I devour photo exhibitions, photographer monographs, artist talks. But most importantly, Embued Photophiles is informed by the founders of the medium. For without their pioneering spirits, I wouldn’t have been inspired to make and share this work with you.
Here, I will forever stop down, open up, (at various speeds, but mostly at my favorite speed, slow) and only by, I promise you this, always, only by available light. OPEN UP (more)
OPEN UP :
a term in photography that refers to opening the aperture of your lens to allow more light to pass through which causes less focus within the frame (a shallow depth of field, if you will) depending on where the focus is placed. Here, I open up and shed more light with an illustrated extended biography.
I divide my time between my studio in Brooklyn…
…and off the grid in Northern California.
I also spend a fair amount of time in between. I love the Sonoran desert in the winter.
I mine for images everywhere I go. I shoot sparingly, actually…
…and I gather snapshots of unknown origin.
I don’t think film photography is superior, but I value the tangibility of analog and alternative process photography. The spirit of exploration in early photography is the largest influence at Embued Photophiles.
I integrate letterpress and screen printing with photography. I like my creative processes to be slow, simple and tactile. I print everything by hand with a combination of my antique letterpress, silk screens, & photo processes that, at times, date back to the 1800’s.
I make greeting cards, prints, notebooks, gift tags, pillows and tote bags with sustainable materials in one of the greenest buildings in Brooklyn. The work celebrates simplicity and slow paces while honoring photographic histories -personal, unknown and from the archives. By that I mean…
…I employ images from photo history. Edweard Muybridge made this series in 1887… (See how I honor his work here).
…I use my own photos. I captured this at Jones Beach in Northern California. I then letterpressed on top of the photographs to make cards…(See here).
…and I rescue and re-use discarded snapshots that I find in corners of the country far and wide. I collected this one from a little shop at the edge of a rowdy town in the Pacific Northwest where hippies, rednecks, and Bulgarian mafia coexist. (See here).
This all began as a word of mouth custom print operation. I’m open to commissions as they relate to your own personal photographic history. Drop a line if you’d like to create a meaningful collaboration with family photos, letters or other heirloom ephemera. I made these pillows for my own family from a letter written by my Great Grandfather (the man framed right behind me looking in to the camera) to my Grandmother (the woman on the far right of the frame). Or just drop a line to say hello. I’d love to hear from you.