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Em White

@_slowmedown

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⋒ making photos, teaching @corcphoto @penumbrafoundation @visartsrva
tintype portrait studio + commission work
email > DMs: [email protected]

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messing around in the darkroom this fall, finally got around to printing these portraits of my dear friend Anna, made early in the summer as part of @healthbrigade_rva "Care is Resistance" campaign 💛

When approached with the opportunity to represent care in a portrait, I immediately thought of Anna and the ethic of community care they weave into their every day. The project included interviewing folks about their relationship to care, which was such a privilege. Check out @healthbrigade_rva for more about Anna's story and to learn about this inspiring project ❤️ by @_slowmedown

hey folks, popping up to say howdy and share that I have opened up my online books thru the end of November! I'm available for house calls, environmental portraits or studio work! Ive added 3 Open Studio days as well. I really appreciate folks' patience and hanging in there while I'm in studio limbo. 🕊️

sharing some pics from a pop up last month organized by @lassolalune_studio @middlevintageshop @naninstudio (thanks @ethanhickerson) I had such a blast meeting folks, seeing other people's handmade work, hanging out and making portraits under the dogwood tree. This was my first pop up in quite a few years and it just so happened to be where I had my first ever pop up, 11 years ago. A good omen ✨

While I continue to be without a stable studio space I'd love to collaborate with folks on portrait pop ups! If you have a unique space and think we could collaborate in a fun way, please reach out! 🫶 by @_slowmedown

i love what the virginia humidity does to the light this time of year💧
a treat to catch @jose.quique while he was in town a few weeks back. by @_slowmedown

at the end of last spring I was offered the fun opportunity of making some self-portraits to accompany an article about my art practice ❤️ This commission came as I was facing my studio closing and beginning to confront the significance of this space and the time Ive spent here. It felt intuitive to make the self portraits in my studio and darkroom, to have them also double as documentation of this thing I created that feels so special to me. Sharing a few outtakes and the final piece.
I had so much with this project, each image feels loaded with so many fun details Im happy to have documented. Shot on 4x5 film found in a fridge at an estate sale, you should be able to find the camera and shutter release chord in every shot, I wanted it to be obvious who was taking the picture. 💛

thanks Matt for reaching out and sharing about my work, and thank you Jess for being my AD 💛 by @_slowmedown

its been a bleach and tone moment by @_slowmedown

HAPPY PRIDE from me and mine to you and yours ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🩷 💋💋💋💋 by @_slowmedown

excited to share that you can see my work thru early fall at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts @vmfamuseum, as part of an exhibition in their permanent gallery for photography! "Promise and Peril: Recent Acquisitions in American Landscape Photography." What an honor to share wallspace with some of the greats ❤️

Sharing some bts from around the time I made the glass negative for this print. ❤️ It was a time when I'd set up nightly on the river and photograph the moonrise. This particular image was made during the harvest moon, with the camera pointed in the opposite direction of the moonrise...I had timed it wrong and was sitting with a rapidly drying wetplate that needed to be used. After a few minutes of waiting for the moon, I just said screw it, and turned the camera around. My dog Gus would often keep me company on these nights, making the darkness a little less spooky :) by @_slowmedown

last spring at the studio has been pretty cute so far 🌷 my move out has been slower than initially expected, giving me a little extra time, I'll be adding a June event to my calendar soon, and that will finish off my time in this space 💙 by @_slowmedown

spent time in Maine this weekend for the first time in years and am currently languishing at the airport after a canceled flight, so what better time to dive into the archive... tintypes made along backroads in Maine in 2018. I never found a place for them in a larger body of work, but have had fun noticing how I am drawn to similar spaces wherever I go, landscapes that mirror Virginia's... by @_slowmedown

Gus, my sun boy, my water baby, my beloved companion of nine years, passed on to the next life a little over two weeks ago, on the first day of spring. His loss was sudden and unexpected; such a swift farewell to this special being has been difficult to process. I loved this dog so damn much and he loved me back, he loved you too.

I always think of Gus when I see mayapples- they were just beginning to bloom the year I adopted him as a puppy, just over 9 years ago. I took his picture posing in them that year, and every year after. I just noticed them popping up this week.

In springtime, we were always early to dip our feet in the creek, eager for warmer days in water ahead. We spent the summers together baking in the sun side-by-side and cooling off in the river after, him excitedly waiting for me to throw the next stick. In the fall we loved to walk in the woods and bask in the autumn breezes. He’d spend all winter pressed against my side, under the covers or cozy on a couch. Gus and I napped together almost every afternoon, him barely fitting on the sofa but so eager to be my little spoon. We had our own body language.

I’m still adjusting to the idea of a world without him in it, the whole pack is adjusting... It’s been surreal to come home and not have him greet me at the door, proudly flaunting a toy. Or how quiet the home feels, without his howl and without the thumping of his heavy tail hitting the wood floor. He was such a hound… I keep returning to how grief is just another side of love and man, did I love this dog. My first puppy, forever a baby in my eyes. His eyelashes had just started to go white, a grey dusting around his muzzle, I can't believe I won't see him grow old. Thank you to everyone who loved him, he carried that love with him. Thank you to everyone who has sent love my way, it's been so appreciated.

Hard to summarize such a transcendent soul; Gus was love, Gus was light, Gus was magic. Until the next time, goofy guy <3 by @_slowmedown

hi team, bittersweet update here 🌹

After over 9 years, it is time for my Hull St studio chapter to close. Although this wasn't planned (the building is for sale) I am leaning in to the unexpected and taking this as an opportunity to reassess my portrait practice. I am currently booking thru the end of May, and then taking a pause while I reimagine. Im not sure what it will look like yet, but anticipating reopening my books later this summer.

I am so grateful to have had this little storefront for close to a decade. I can't believe it's been this long, it's truly humbling and exciting to consider how much growth, discovery and play has occurred in this space over the years. I am so grateful to everyone who has been part of this chapter- from the handful of folks I shared the space with, to the many many folks that have come to make a portrait together- THANK YOU.

What this means for the near future:
🌹I have listed all remaining studio sessions on my website , thru the end of May.
🌹 I will be taking a break from booking studio work, and instead offer outdoor/ on-location portrait work only this summer
🌹 Stay tuned for a sale- I have a lot of equipment and darkroom gear Ive hoarded for their potential
🌹 Keep an eye out for a cute popup moment from time to time
🌹 Come visit sooner rather than later
🌹 If you chose "local pickup" and have yet to retrieve your tintype (some of yall, going on over a year 👀) Please reach out to coordinate pickup/shipping by @_slowmedown

some install pics from my show 'A Separate Sun' last month at @a_wall_gallery, featuring a mix of annotated cyanotypes and a super 8 film 🌀

this show was so much fun to make and I can't say thank you enough for all the love and support! ya'll really showed up and im sitting here weeks later still gushing about it! extra special thank you to Paloma for inviting me to share work, for the massive encouragement and for the impeccable DIY vibes, I'm so pumped on this space and what you're doing! 💙 by @_slowmedown