Donna Cameron
Artist Statement
Tactile Consciousness: About my Art Prints and my Film Process, Cinematic Paper Emulsion
My work is about the print and the creative process of the artist/printmaker. This creative process respects visionary thought, chance encounter, approach, capture and projection. Works of visual art for me are recordings of adventures that are shared through a sense experience of “tactile consciousness”; a trans-media alchemy using hand-pulled paper, pulp, fiber, pixels, pigment, light, projection, objects, language, sound and time.
Imaging techniques that I have studied and mastered include small gauge film, silver nitrate photography, digital recording, block, stamp, diapositive, intaglio and mono and solar printing, typing, paper pulp, and water and/or oil based paint. I need and use all of these skills in my work, to herald positive and negative reversal spaces, render visible storage of invisible objects, or repurpose artifacts of culture, as light jazz projections.
I believe that art should represent the artist first and, through the artist, message home to the receiver. Integrity, like place, matters. Chance elements are important to me. All of the aforementioned are signs for abstract narratives that I like to build sequentially in space or on a printed page, just as I do themes in a jazz film montage.
In the 1980s and 1990s I was noted for my improvisational handmade films and my invention of “Cinematic Paper Emulsion”, a print-forward filmmaking technique for which I was awarded a US patent in 2001. Variations of this technique have been employed here in compositions and themes.
I continue to hope for change as I interface a “tactile consciousness" of pixels, pigment, emulsion, fiber and pulp to offer viewers a way to make visionary (foot) prints in time.
Read: Donna Cameron Screens and Exhibits Multiple Works, NYU/TISCH (Jan. 22, 2026)
Shop Donna’s Work
Artist: Donna Cameron
Medium: Silver Nitrate Photography
Image Size: 20” x 16”
Framed Size: 24" x 20"
Artist: Donna Cameron
Medium: Assemblage using paint, ink, 35, 16, 8 mm film, projectors, brushes, canvas, paper, printers, velcro, plastic sleeve,
Image Size: 30” x 40”
Framed Size: 30" x 40"
Artist: Donna Cameron
Medium: Silver gelatin print
Image Size: 20 x 16
Framed Size: 24 x 20
Artist: Donna Cameron
Medium: Silver nitrate, 35mm film, forest detritus, light, archival fiber paper, vintage frame, acid free plexiglas
Image Size: 17” x 2”
Framed Size: 20" x 24"
Artist: Donna Cameron
Medium: 16mm film, paper pulp, light, watercolor paper, vintage frame
Image Size: 12” x 15 3/4”
Framed Size: 14 3/8" x 18 3/8"
Artist: Donna Cameron
Medium: Silver gelatin print
Image Size: 12 × 24 × 2
Framed Size: 20 x 24
Artist: Donna Cameron
Medium: Silver gelatin print
Image Size: 20 x 16
Framed Size: 20 x 24
Framed Price: $1,100
Unframed Price: $800
Artist: Donna Cameron
Medium: Silver nitrate negative, archival fiber paper
Image Size: 17 x 22
Framed Size: 20 x 24
Framed Price: $650
Unframed Price: NA
Exhibits
Silver Nitrate: Paris Circa 1984
– Donna Cameron –
May 1-25, 2025
opening/vernissage: Saturday, May 3, 2-4:00 pm
Andy Warhol once said "The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” This is especially true of Paris, where the sense of style and individual idiosyncrasies seem always to be vintage and eternal. Go to Paris tomorrow and you may find the same divas and eccentrics that appear in this show. Here, in black and white, people and place, not landmarks, give meaning.
Images in which human hands reach out, arms embrace, a landmark monument meditatively awaits a cyclist's return: a camera shutter clicks, a film roll is wound forward – ordinary street theater is made timeless. Celluloid negatives are sculptural objects that hold a multi-sprocket hole surface layered with a fragile emulsion. They are to be handled respectfully. One can take a celluloid negative out over time and reconsider it. Reprint it, replay it, and a history ensues, a song.
I shot the silver nitrate photographs in this show in the mid-1980s, long before I made the photographic and filmic images that began to be collected by museums. The enigmatic encounters portrayed in this portfolio began in 1984, when I was a young artist, a stranger in Paris. I return to these celluloid dreams throughout every decade of my artistic practice and find new insights, always finding there is something special about the light in Paris.
Works by Members of the Washington Printmakers Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 9, 2:00-4:00 pm
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape.
Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.”
—Andrew Wyeth, American painter.
As we move toward winter, a certain quietude falls over us. It is time for contemplative thought and a different perspective. We dream and we reflect. Then, as the Solstice arrives, and days lengthen, a new vision begins. Sometimes it takes the eyes of an artist to usher us into this quieter world. We at Washington Printmakers Gallery offer up our visions of this introspective time as we invite you to celebrate this season and its sense of promise.
Film, print, painting & projection works by Donna Cameron
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 4, 2-4 pm. Artist’s Talk: 3:15 p.m.
Film, print, painting & projection works by Donna Cameron
All Member Group Exhibition
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 5, 2:00-5:00 pm
August is a golden month. Many have left home and are exploring our country, whether in National Parks, at the seashore, or in other hidden corners of this nation. It is a time to reflect on the beauty and complexity of America. Woody Guthrie’s famous song, This Land is Your Land, speaks of this beauty with his iconic words, which Bruce Springsteen once said comprise “the greatest song ever written about America.” Our printmakers and photographers offer their views of Guthrie’s ballad, each from a personal perspective. This rich collection of images promises to make you reflect on our country’s glory as we look deeper into our souls."
Artist: Donna Cameron
Medium: Projectogram to Digital Print