Dress-up with Nicole

By Cheryl Machat Dorskind
This article originally appeared in the e-zine, “The Handmade Photograph,” March 13, 2014

From the beginning of my photography career, I married paint with photos. Photography was my canvass, color my voice. At that time, there was little information available on the technique of handpainting and what was available proved contradictory and frustrating. Determined, I experimented with photographic papers, artist’s oil paints, and pencils. The learning process was often exasperating and expensive, but I persevered.
In 1987 I had my first solo exhibition in New York City, and I have been exhibiting ever since. I began teaching handpainted photography in 1993 and my lesson plans developed into a best selling book, “The Art of Handpainting Photographs.”
This one photo of my daughter Nicole and I bridges three of my passions: photography, painting, and motherhood (and children and family portraiture). It was a beautiful July morning and Nicole’s newborn sister was napping. The warm sunlight encouraged a spontaneous dress-up photo session.
With a Nikon N90 S, AF- DC Nikkor, 105 mm f/2 lens (a beauty of a lens), Ilford HP5 Plus film, tripod and a cable release (with a long extension), we photographed a roll of self portraits. I printed the image onto Ilford Matte Multigrade fiber paper and added washes of oil paint and pencils until the color softly carried the message.
This photo was almost the book cover of “The Art of Handpainting Photographs” and remains an inspiration for my self portraits and photographing children images.
The Handmade Photograph, an e-zine for photographers, educators, and artists, explores the hand of the photographer. Published by Wendy Erickson, the former editor of Photo Technique magazine, her e-zine promises to be a rich and unique photographic resource for modern and historic photographic techniques.
Please share this post and help announce the launch of The Handmade Photograph.