Lumen print workshop with guest artist Rachelle Bussières

It's an honour to introduce guest resident artist Rachelle Bussières, an artist and educator based in New York, who resided at Equivalentbehaviour in August 2024.

Bussières lives and works in New York City where she extends her practice as the founder of LUMIÈRE NYC, an educational organization that supports a long-term and comprehensive resource by bringing together the arts, science, and theories of early photography in the context of contemporary practices using lumen printing.

In this hands-on workshop, participants experimented with various lumen printing techniques utilising the studio space and outdoor space. Participants created cameraless lumen prints using onsite plants and objects, and botanicals brought by participants.
Lumen prints are produced using gelatin silver paper, which is exposed to light and then placed directly into the fixer. Drawing from the lumen print process of invited guest artist Rachelle Bussières, participants grasped methods for achieving colours on gelatin silver paper.

This Workshop was a part of AIR INDEX, a collaborative project with Rachelle Bussières and Equivalentbehaviour space.
”During this past winter, spring, and summer, Rachelle Bussières, based in New York City, corresponded with twenty-five artists from various locales to coordinate the prints collected at Equivalentbehaviour Space. Each photographer exposed a few sheets of gelatin silver paper to their local light, allowing it to become suffused with the radiance, atmospheric flux, and impurities of their environment.

Air Index is made in collaboration with artists from around the globe; Svetlana Bailey (New York), Rachelle Bussières (New York), Robert Canali (San Francisco), Vanessa Cowling (Cape Town), Kate Van Der Drift (New Zealand), Hannah Fletcher (London), Shaina Gates (Kittery), Martha Gray (London), Ramona Guntert (London), Natasha Harrison (Orlando), Daniel Hojnacki (Chicago), Nikolai Ishchuk (London), Constanza Isaza Martinez (London), Thomas Jenkins (London), Tamara Kalo (Beirut), Melanie King (Manchester), Alyssa Minahan (Boston), Sara Minsky (New York), Ng Hui Hsien (Singapore), Yvette Hamilton (Sydney), Armelle Tulunda (Paris), Yann Pocreau (Montréal), Izabela Pluta (Sydney), John Steck Jr. (Baltimore), and Katrina Stamatopoulos (London).”

Text excerpt by Christopher Squier, New York City