This meeting is available as a recording below!

The anthotype (ancient Greek for “flower image”) is considered an artistic process today, but the technique was invented in 1842 by the multi-talented British astronomer and chemist Sir John Herschel. Like many artists today, Jesseca Ferguson is deeply concerned about the ecological impact of her studio/darkroom. Since summer 2019, she has experimented with the anthotype, an early photographic method which uses only plants and the sun to produce images on artist’s paper. Ephemeral and very time-consuming, this process was quickly abandoned after its invention but is currently experiencing a worldwide renaissance with artists seeking “green” ways to make images.

Ferguson lives and works in an artists’ co-operative building, a 19th century warehouse converted to live-work space, located in downtown Boston, MA. The extremely sunny, flat roof of her building is ideal for producing anthotypes. Not only can she grow her plant materials on the roof, but she can also expose her anthotypes there as well.

Her current series, Pages from a Night Album, consists of 19th century images of the moon and nocturnal moths and birds printed as anthotypes. The ephemerality of the medium speaks to the ecological fragility of the night creatures depicted, and to the fleeting light of the moon. Nineteenth century scholars knew that to be preserved, unfixed photographs had to be protected from daylight. Therefore, they imagined “night albums”: closed books with black pages, for storing photographs, only to be opened at night and viewed by moonlight.

She uses a 21st century workaround to preserve her ephemeral anthotypes, scanning and printing them digitally, then storing the originals in the dark. She may rescan/reprint a year later to observe the fading process. Because she layers plant emulsions, her images fade at different rates, yielding varied effects. Some images have barely faded after a year, while others disappear within months of being printed. To make the anthotypes, she uses homegrown plant materials (the petals of geraniums, pansies, petunias, etc.) as well as vegetables (Swiss chard, spinach, etc.) from local markets.

Jesseca Ferguson is a Boston-based artist who works with photography and has experimented with pinhole cameras and various antiquarian photo processes since 1990. Her recent focus on plant-based photographic methods include chlorophyll prints as well as anthotypes.

Ferguson’s work is in the permanent collections of more than twenty museums and libraries, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; the Museum of the History of Photography, Kraków, Poland; and the Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, England. Her artistic and curatorial projects have been supported by Art Matters, Inc.; Trust for Mutual Understanding; MacDowell, LEF Foundation; and Engelhard Foundation.

Ferguson’s images and photo-objects have been published in numerous books, catalogues, and articles on handmade photography in the US and abroad. She received her undergraduate degrees from Harvard University (AB, magna cum laude) and Massachusetts College of Art and Design (BFA), and her MFA from Tufts University (in conjunction with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). An artist-educator, Ferguson has taught at Boston-area art schools including Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. For further information, please visit her website www.museumofmemory.com.