As we close in on a holiday that celebrates Labor, Blue Mitchell is the perfect photographer to showcase. He works hard to create his own imagery , but also labors to celebrate an array of other photographer’s work. Blue received his BFA in photography from the Oregon College of Art & Craft and he looks at creating images with an open mind, utilizing many photographic techniques including toy cameras, pinhole, other film and digital cameras as well as alternative processes, scanners, aged paper, wax, installation, collage, and hand drawing. Most recently he has been specializing in Acrylic Lifts and Burnt Transparencies.

Blue not only is the Editor-in-Chief and creator of Diffusion Magazine, he is the exhibitions curator for Plates to Pixels gallery, and a teacher. Much of the work he features is imagery that has been created with alternative processes, and in a world of contemporary digital imagery, his magazine and gallery celebrate unique approaches to photography.

His own work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. including special invitations by Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, PONCHO art invitational, and the Oregon College of Art & Craft’s Annual ‘Art on the Vine Auction’. He recently exhibited new work at Newspace Center for Photography and has been juried into the Light Factory’s 3rd Annuale. He was recently interviewed by Lauren Henkin on the Photo Radio blog.

The images below are from his project, Evanescent Energy, where images were conceived by burning 35mm and 120mm slides with an open flame. To find out more about this process, Blue has a tutorial on his site.

I have a strong desire for the hand to express more than the simple reconstruction of fleeting time often depicted in photography. The energy that emanates in our natural surroundings pierces through my exterior senses and into my core being. This intense fervor can not be cast on film alone, but with the use of fire I’ve found a way to re-create the almost metaphysical underpinning of nature, myself and the invisible effervescence around us.