Patricia Elwood is a newly established Irish photographer based in County Down, Northern Ireland. Her interests have always lingered haplessly within the arts. During her studies in Trinity College Dublin she developed a keen interest and eye for visual imagery and trained in manual film photography and darkroom development.
For many years Patricia shoot with an old fashioned, manual 35mm black and white film camera and hand developed all her prints personally.
Patricia "There is an intrinsic beauty and simplicity in capturing real images like memories that only happen once. I love the vintage, classical and artistic effect from shooting in black and white and the magic of watching the first ghosts of the image materialise in chemicals by the red safe light of the darkroom"
Unfortunately, time and the loss of a darkrrom space has meant that within recent months she has had to trade her old skills for digital and computer based art.
"It has been a refreshing and new challenge. I find myself overloaded in colour and creation. But still refuse to doctor what nature has already painted so beautifully."
With an accumulated collection of over 1000 B&W film negatives and considering the length of time for processing one single print it was no longer fiesable to produce the magnitude of photographs that she wanted to possess. Cataloguing and scanning of these negatives will be going on for the next fews years to ensure a complete and permanent collection.
For the first time a selection of film B&W prints will be juxta-posed with new digital imagery in a collection of original prints and unique mementos arranged in galleries for viewing and purchase. Hopefully they will reflect a unique and interesting perspective of life that will bring inspiration and pleasure