Elizabeth Opalenik

Veils of Illusion

I knew I had come home photographically from the moment I learned the Mordançage process in that magical Provencal setting with the cicadas chanting in the midday heat. They beckoned me to the landscape of wild herbs and exotic scents, and it was there I discovered that in Mordançage, like life, you have possibilities. It was a visual smorgasbord that stroked the imagination and inspired. From the fields I gathered wheat, oats, fennel, and bits of the landscape to memorialize in a photogram. Today, we all want instant gratification but in Provence, it was about the journey to find it while using all five senses to process the information as a photographic artist. Shouldn’t that be the goal of an artist? That week changed and shaped my life as I continue to observe, share, and interpret the gifts of the universe.

elizabethopalenik.com

Biography

Elizabeth Opalenik left home in 1969 to the sound of peace marches and my mother saying, "I knew you were different from the time you were two." From the farm in western Pennsylvania to the shores of Connecticut, she evolved as an artist while making a living as an accountant and jazz club manager. In 1979, after a two-week photographic workshop in Maine, she sold everything and never looked back. She went to France, learned the Mordançage process from the masters, and freelanced around the globe, including many years supporting philanthropic organizations in the most remote corners of the world. She is a renowned instructor in the Mordançage process and a recognized photographic historian.