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Just when you think you've seen every photograph you ever need to see at an art fair someone comes along and grabs your heart with the strength of their imagery.

For Chris Dahlquist learning to use a camera and the darkroom came at the same time she learned to ride a bicycle. Her amazing photographs follow in the tradition of the "pictorialists", early photographers who were interested in "creating" an image rather than simply recording it.  At a glance, you may think the images are from an old archive. Instead, they are the musings of an contemporary explorer of the nation's highways and open spaces.

Just as the  earliest practitioners of daguerreotype and tintype, she treats each metal  plate by hand, preparing it to receive a photograph. She  capitalizes on the smooth surface of steel, a finely textured under  painting, and the translucent qualities of digital pigments to create  each luminous piece.

Disillusioned by a life as a commercial photographer and ready to leave that life behind she began again,

I returned to the start, the root of the discipline; I went back to the days of photographer as experimenter, inventor, and mad scientist. I investigated the line between science and creativity, process and concept, historic materials and contemporary technology. The artwork I have created through this exploration has been varied, but the common theme remains - experimenting with modern process while carefully studying and honoring historic techniques.

Learn more about Chris and her work:

ArtFairCalendar.com/featured artist

Meet her this month: 

September 1-3, Art in the Pearl, Portland, Oregon

September 7-9, St. Louis Art Fair, Clayton, Missouri