Riya Panwar is an alternative photographer and visual artist whose ongoing research and practice explores the expansion of the Polaroid Emulsion Lift technique. Her work considers the Polaroid as something beyond a fixed image, a living visual that can grow, decay, transform, and exist in relation to time and materiality.
Working with ephemeral and perishable surfaces such as fruits, biomaterials, and materials gathered from nature, Riya explores how images can become part of the environments they inhabit. Her ongoing project, Living Polaroids, looks at how humans learn from nature and become part of it, allowing non-human collaborators to influence, morph, and gather around the work.
The practice is an exploration of making with, rather than simply making on, material, creating space for chance, change, and the unpredictable qualities of natural processes.
In this workshop, Riya will introduce participants to the Polaroid Emulsion Lift technique and its possibilities for exploring materiality and making. Through demonstrations, experimentation, and conversation, participants will be encouraged to consider how their visuals can exist, transform, and evolve through different materials and surfaces.
Riya has been working with the Polaroid Emulsion Lift technique for over 4+ years and continues to explore its potential as a way of understanding images, materials, and the living world around us.