We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Adrienne Moumin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Adrienne, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

I still work in a traditional B&W wet darkroom, while the vast majority of photographers shoot solely digital. The wide availability of digital capturing devices and instant results has pushed darkroom work into a niche category.

Many people who see my work for the first time are moved to share about their high school or childhood home darkroom, or are inspired to investigate analog photography or handmade collage.

I straddle the photography and collage worlds, and have found warm acceptance in both. Making art by hand is contemplative and and engages many of the body’s abilities and senses, all at the same time. I think that something is lost as this gets supplanted by technology.

I stumbled into my main art form, handmade photo collage, by accident when I was about to move and lose access to a rental darkroom. In early 2000, I began making multiple darkroom prints of some negatives, and later created 2-D and 3-D geometric abstracts. What began as something to do “in the meantime” (between darkrooms) has been my main art form for over 20 years.

My meticulous, multi-modal way of working means that each work takes a long time to create. Each part of the process is very physical – both the photographic and the collage/framing aspects are physically demanding.

It takes dedication and love to maintain an analog photography practice, and not everyone wants to take that on. I built my own darkroom in 2002, and have welcomed students, long after most area darkrooms closed down. I had a great time teaching at several in their last years.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Born in 1961 in Brooklyn, NY, I am best known for my hand-cut-and-assembled gelatin silver photo collages, and for the B&W photographs from which they are made.

I am a self-taught collage artist, and created my first work at 8 years old, a bookcase covered with meticulously cut and pasted magazine pictures. In 1999, I graduated from SUNY Empire State College with a B.A. in Documentary Visual Studies and Society – a self-styled major which combines my love of photography and commentary.

In the early 2000’s I began cutting up my gelatin silver photographs for use in collage, in order to carry on with my work during a period when I had no access to a darkroom. This led to my ongoing “Architextures” series of hand-cut-and-assembled photo collages.

The inspiration for this series is the architecture and urban landscapes of Manhattan, and its awe-inspiring discoveries. I also use images of nature, store window interiors, and other subjects that evoke strong feelings of a time or place.

In this series, I combine B&W darkroom photography with cut-and-assembled handwork. I create multiple silver gelatin prints of an image, which I hand-cut and -assemble into 2-D and 3-D geometric abstract collages. While appearing on-screen as digital montages, my handmade pieces are full of depth, texture and layering. I strive to create drama and optical effects that change with viewing distance and perspective. I adhere to museum-quality archival standards in my photography, collage, and framing methods.

My work ranges in size from 6” at the shortest dimension, to 95” at the longest side.

I provide a one-of-a-kind, striking art for homes and public spaces. I work with art consultants, designers, and individual clients on commissions, and will also install work, if desired. I have also consulted on a prominent public art installation completed in 2020.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Like many, my story of resilience is a Pandemic story. I was completely paralyzed, in shock, for the first three months of lockdown. During Month 4, I suddenly sprang into action, and I decided to use the time to the best of my ability.

I made some of my largest and most ambitious work during that 2+-year period. I had recently received some grant funding to make new large work, which proposal included an assistant for part of the process. The works I envisioned were too large to wield by myself.

During Covid, that was no longer an option. After some research, I bought two woodworkers’ outfeed tables and a small height-adjustable side table, to substitute for the extra pair of hands.

I ended up making some seminal works during that period, and I also developed a method of using stacked shaped matboard mounting base for a deeper 3-D effect. I later received more grant funding to professionally photograph and frame these works.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

NFTs are something that has never resonated with me, given my emphasis on the physical and the handmade.

Especially during the pandemic, I have read widely and attended webinars on this topic; this “art form” has proven to be a risky investment for most artists. It seems it has fallen off the radar of media coverage and is no longer part of the cultural zeitgeist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://adriennemoumin.com
• Instagram: adrienne.moumin
• Facebook: adrienne.moumin
• Linkedin: adrienne.moumin
• Youtube: adrienne.moumin

Image Credits
Pete Duvall/Anything Photographic