Department of Art
Over the winter of 2020 – 2021 I began experimenting with creating photographic images using a high-resolution flatbed scanner. The ones I found most compelling and thought-provoking were of plant materials: flowers, leaves, even whole plants. I scanned each of these objects in a darkened room with the cover of the scanner up, instead of flat against the glass as would be the norm. The only source of light in these images is the LED light in the bar of the scanner as it moves precisely and slowly down the length of the glass. I found the quality of light captured by the scanner quite astonishing. The extreme detail because of the high resolution reveals a world unseen, a world of its own. At the same time the extremely narrow depth of field resulting from this process and the bottomless black surrounding the image add a sense of potent mystery.
Though born and raised in El Paso, Texas, LJ Evans has called Alaska home since 1986. Evans first connected in earnest with fine art photography in 1979 at PhotoGraphics Workshop, a teaching space and gallery in New Canaan, Conn. A passion for photography has been an important part of her life ever since. For a number of years she worked with classic analog black and white darkroom prints and still feels profoundly drawn to the simplicity of monochrome imagery. It wasn’t until she started experimenting with Polaroid materials in the 1990s that Evans began to produce a significant amount of work in color. Botanical Dreams comes from more recent explorations with various alternative photographic processes and is so far her deepest dive into vivid color. Evans’ work is in a number of private collections and has received Honorable Mentions in Rarefied Light and Alaska Positive, Alaska’s statewide juried photography exhibits and she’s had solo shows at Fairbanks Arts Association’s Bear Gallery and at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In 2022 Evans completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography at UAF.
