Alternative Photography :: Eleanor Sweeney Photography

Eleanor Sweeney Photography

Alternative Photography Side Show I have been photographing in the Adirondack Mountains of Northern New York for over 30 years. Recently I have worked in various alternative photographic processes, mostly Polaroid transfer, but also platinum/palladium, cyanotype, and Liquid Light. The element of unpredictability in some of these techniques is what draws me to them.

Many of my Polaroid transfer works are multiple images in groups. The finished pieces seem to show the passage of time as well as the possibility of looking at something in different ways. They are usually pictures of ordinary places or objects but when I assemble them in a new arrangement they can be surprising and abstract.

The always-changing landscape around my home near Saranac Lake, NY, inspires much of my work. The patterns of leaves, flowers, rocks and ice catch my eye. Occasionally I also like to photograph people, sometimes in nature.

I always take one or two cameras when I travel so that I can photograph the new places I see. My pictures create a feeling or an impression of a place, rather than a record of where I have been. New York City, Venice, the Dolomites, Iceland and South Carolina have all been my subject matter in the last few years, and earlier trips to Russia, India, and the American Southwest continue to influence me as well.