Each month, Cowork Frederick showcases the work of a local artist in our main room. On First Saturday, when we’re normally closed, we make our space available to the artist to host a gallery showing and reception. This month, we’re pleased to present the art of Jessica Hibbard. The exhibit features 8×10″ prints of photos created with expired Polaroid film. One collection of images depicts scenes and vignettes captured throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania with a vintage Spectra camera. A second grouping of sepia-toned photographs was created with “peel-apart” film, and features steampunk-attired actors from the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s 2010 production of Canterbury Tales.
“In the age of digital everything, many people ask why I choose to shoot film,” said Hibbard. “I’m drawn to the beauty of vintage cameras, the warmth of film, and the uniquely imperfect nature of each image. Instant film is especially magical, and watching an image swim to the surface as it develops just never gets old.”
Jessica is a content strategist who owns Stories and Ideas LLC, a Frederick-based marketing and communications that specializes in corporate storytelling. She has been making photographs with instant film since 2009, when friends encouraged her to try using a vintage Polaroid camera. Less than a year later, The Impossible Project invited Jessica to test the first batch of instant film produced in the last remaining Polaroid factory in the Netherlands. Her “Rocking Horse” photo was one of the first 49 images to be added to the Impossible Collection (housed in Vienna), which includes word by the world’s top instant photographers, and was on display at Impossible’s gallery space in New York City through December 2010. Most of Jessica’s work features landscapes and vignettes from the Mid-Atlantic, but her work has been purchased by collectors as far away as Tokyo and London, and featured on blogs in Russia and Belgium.
For more information about the exhibit, contact the artist at jess@storiesandideas.com or contact Cowork Frederick.