Rooted in the photographic arts, PHOTO FARM is a makerspace in Chapel Hill, NC, that emphasizes in-person analog practices, camera-less or through the lens. PHOTO FARM provides the tools — an analog darkroom, photo studio, photogravure press and more — for artists to grow in their craft and to activate their primal intuition. We coat, brush, spread, print, soak and hope. We tear, cut, paste, wait and discuss. From this hands-on rigor Art emerges: our nonverbal, illimitable communiqué.
PHOTO FARM brings people together and forges connection, inviting all artists looking to stretch time, make meaning, and discover. We host artists, salons, workshops, and curated talks. And nourish the idea that we all function as teachers and students on any given day. We provide the space to emancipate the many sides of yourself.
John Szarkowski famously said, “Photography is either a window or a mirror.” It can also be both: our external lived reality and our internal experience. As a mirror, we encourage complexity in photography, rejecting simplistic reflections of ourselves. As a window, we see the world with curiosity and grace. PHOTO FARM champions dichotomy as a foundation for transcendent art. Beauty and tension. Light and dark. Time and space. Struggle and triumph. Me and You.
OUR MISSION
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Art is not a beauty shop nor an imitation of nature. Art is spirit, and only the quality of spirit gives the arts an important place in schools, in education, in life.
— JOSEF ALBERS
The Staff of PHOTO FARM
Phyllis B. Dooney
Phyllis B. Dooney is a visual storyteller and educator. She was honored in 2019 as one of Photo District News (PDN’s) “30 New and Emerging Photographers.” Her work has appeared in Lightfield Festival, The Daegu Photo Biennale, The Nasher Museum of Art, Rencontres d'Arles, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The Oxford American and elsewhere. Of her work, she says — “I photograph family; because family tells secrets about country.”
FOUNDER / DIRECTOR
Rachel Jessen
Rachel Jessen is a documentary photographer telling feminist stories about power, identity, and women’s lives. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and has been published in editorial outlets like The New York Times, ESPN The Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, NBC News, among others. Rachel is also an educator and the Digital Imaging Specialist at The North Carolina Museum of Art .
COORDINATOR, OPERATIONS / OUTREACH
Jane Pierce
STUDIO ASSISTANT
Jane Pierce is a researcher and printmaker interested in the intimate storytelling of personal and collective memory through visual art. She cherishes a slow practice through analog photography and darkroom printing as metamorphosis for etching, linocut, and mixed media products. Jane is largely influenced by the images found in the natural world, stranger's stories, her family's archived photos, chronic illness, religious memorabilia, and loved one’s faces.