DB Miller Photography: Etsy and the Handmade Photowork

I set up an Etsy shop and, as the aesthetic is vintage or handmade, I took the time to dig through my archives for alternative process and photo-based printmakings to sell in my shop. I haven't done much of either since I started shooting models last Dec. There is a creative bug to do handmade stuff and get away from the technology that's ruining my eyesite and making me a stationary blob in a chair. Below is from last year's Mythological Beasts linocut print series I created out of photomontages... for example, Grendel's jaw is from a lamprey I shot in an aquarium.

I did cyanotypes of a series called Western Zen when I was kind of desperately casting about on how to present the work. I eventually settled on a book format of black and whites with painted edges, but I have prints from this side avenue.

I'm always thinking of how to portray mythology in photography, be it via model, photomontaged linocut prints, or Polaroid transfers of stuff I designed in photoshop. I remember getting this globe ball and snake at Wal Mart for $1 each. Had to give up on Polaroids when first I lost access to a Polaroid machine that used photos, and then they stopped making Polaroid.

Several of my images from this era are come of random images because the work was initially done for a class. My alternative process photo instructor was Carol Panaro Smith, a great advocate of handmade imagery.