As part of M+B’s 20th Anniversary celebration, we highlight the work of Mariah Robertson, known for radically expanding the language of darkroom photography. In these Chemigram works Robertson uses only traditional light-sensitive photo paper and the standard photochemistry of developer and fixer and transforms the most basic elements of the photographic process into something unexpected and electric. Instead of painting color onto paper, she activates the dyes embedded within the material by exposing them to regular room light and applying chemistry at non-standard temperatures and dilutions. The results are vibrant, camera-less photographs whose layered striations, splashes, and veils of color push the medium beyond its conventional role as a tool of representation.
Her work underscores the delicate balance between chance and control, between chemistry’s unpredictability and the artist’s deliberate interventions. By refusing the darkroom’s traditional precision, where even slight variations in temperature can “ruin” a print, Robertson courts those irregularities, turning them into compositional strengths. The works become records of both time and process, charting a visual terrain where rigor and accident collide.
Through her engagement with the physicality of photographic materials, Robertson redefines the possibilities of the medium, making visible the tensions between accident, experimentation, and aesthetic control that have always lived within the darkroom.