Getting Technical: Alternative Photographic Processes

July 18–October 25, 2026, Gallery 119
2026 FotoFocus Biennial exhibition

Photography is a chemical process, and this exhibition examines ways artists have used historical, non-traditional or experimental processes to make unusual and strange photographs—often through adjustments to chemistry, through darkroom manipulation and through hand-worked compositions. Ideas vary on what exactly is an alternative process, and this exhibition will help viewers to develop a working understanding of what we can include.

Photography is a medium marked by trial and error, experimentation and innovation. In its relatively short history, dozens upon dozens of processes, techniques and technological advancements have been driven by creative minds and out-of-the-box thinkers. Whether creating new camera bodies, modifying darkroom chemistry or reworking the print surface by hand, photographers find countless ways to make the medium their own. This exhibition features numerous photographic formats and processes: from early processes like wet-plate collodion, to lensless ones like chemigram, to experimental processes like solarization.

Support for this 2026 FotoFocus Biennial exhibition was provided in part by FotoFocus.

Plan your visit to see these and other incredible works!

Featured Image: Jon Verney, Untitled (Primavera) (detail), 2019, archival pigment print. Private Collection

Nolan Preece (American, born 1947), Shadowgraph, 2014, gelatin silver print. Gift of the artist, 2023.281

Artist unknown, Untitled, early 20th century, cyanotype. Gift of Peter J. Cohen, 2023.335.155