Drawing with Light (In the Darkroom)

Try your hand at traditional and alternative photography techniques in an exciting interactive workshop on grounds of the historic National Art School. Using basic analogue photographic tools incorporating found objects, light-sensitive paper, chemical processes, and exposure to light you will learn how simple these alchemical and magical methodologies can be, and how to utilise them to create unique and multi-layered artworks.

Amanda Williams will inspire you to discover the power of light to transform the everyday world into poetic, hand-crafted photo-based images, utilising the beautiful buildings, gardens and secret sites of the NAS campus. Black and white darkroom procedures are introduced, along with the 19th Century art of Pinhole cameras and early 20th century art of Photograms with found objects. Amanda shows you how to make your own negatives with miniature collages on plastic, as well as experiment with drawing and painting directly onto the paper with developer; and even your smart phone can be utilised as an image and light source to create unusual prints and compositions of images and objects.

*Short courses and weekend workshops are open to students of ages 16 years and over. For students under 16 years of age there are School Holiday Workshops, Art Club and other youth art programs.

Amanda Williams is a Sydney-based artist working with analogue photographic techniques, light sensitive materials and archives to examine connections between the history of photography and the natural and built environment.

Williams holds a Master of Fine Art from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney (2015), a Bachelor of Fine Art (1st class hons and University Medal) from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (2006) and a Bachelor of Arts (Art History) from the University of Sydney (1998). She was the recipient of the $30,000 MAMA Art Foundation National Photography Prize awarded by Murray Art Museum Albury in 2018 and has been a finalist in numerous awards including The Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists Travel Scholarship at Sydney College of the Arts (2019 & 2022 forthcoming), The William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, Monash Gallery of Art (2018,2017,2015), and The John Fries Award UNSW Galleries (2017).

Her artworks are held in public and private collections including, Murray Art Museum Albury NSW, The Wesfarmers Collection in Perth, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

• Masking tape
• Scissors
• Old paint brushes
• Apron and hand towel
• Notebook
• One sheet clean glass approximately 10 x 12 inches (you can take a piece of glass out of an old or new frame and cover the edges with masking tape for safe handling)
• One packet of photographic paper 10 x 8 inches, Ilford Multigrade Resin Coated Paper, Glossy or Pearl, 25 or 30 sheets in a packet

Collections of objects

• Opaque and translucent objects of all kinds – any plastics or glassware
• Different kinds of papers – with and without texts and images, textured papers are great eg newsprint, cheap magazines, tissues, toilet paper etc.
• Old negatives and slides (transparencies)