Brady Wilks (born June 3, 1980) is an American

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

, known for his alternative process landscapes. He works in historical and alternative photographic processes including acrylic gel lift / transfers and wet plate

collodion process The collodion process is an early photography, photographic process for the production of grayscale images. The collodion process – mostly synonymized with the term "''wet-plate process''", requires the photographic material to be coated, sensi ...

negatives, ambrotypes, and

ferrotype A tintype, also known as a melanotype or ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal, colloquially called 'tin' (though not actually tin-coated), coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as th ...

Education

Wilks attended

Art Institute of Pittsburgh The Art Institute of Pittsburgh was a Private university, private Art school, art college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The school emphasized design education and career preparation for the Creative industries, creative job market. It was founded ...

earning a bachelor's, and the

Academy of Art University The Academy of Art University (AAU, or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. ...

in San Francisco earning a Master's of Fine Arts in Photography.

Career

His work has been shown in galleries in the United States with a current focus on the mid-atlantic coast including Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia. He was juried into the

Torpedo Factory Art Center The Torpedo Factory Art Center is the former U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, a naval munitions factory on the banks of the Potomac River in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia which was converted into an art center in 1974. The facility is located at 1 ...

of Alexandria Virginia as an associate artist. Wilks moved from southern California to the Mid Atlantic coast living outside of

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

in Maryland. He currently works as an artist and educator focusing on alternative and historical photographic processes. Wilks started teaching alternative process workshops at art centers including

Pyramid Atlantic Art Center Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (PAAC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit contemporary arts center specializing in papermaking, printmaking, and book arts. They are currently located at 4318 Gallatin Street in Hyattsville, Maryland. History The PAAC was f ...

in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Black Rock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland. He has devised methods of alternative processes and turned them into a series of how-to articles first published with alternativephotography.com. Although he uses and teaches many alternative processes, his focus is on Acrylic Gel Lifts and the Wet Plate

Collodion Process The collodion process is an early photography, photographic process for the production of grayscale images. The collodion process – mostly synonymized with the term "''wet-plate process''", requires the photographic material to be coated, sensi ...

. Wilks was a sponsored speaker at the

Society for Photographic Education The Society for Photographic Education (SPE) is a nonprofit membership organization that provides a forum for the discussion of photography and related media as a means of creative expression and cultural insight. Through its interdisciplinary pro ...

national conference in New Orleans 2015. He addressed the topic of concept and process with emphasis on getting over the novelty of alternative processes.

Bibliography

*''Alternative Photographic Processes: Crafting Handmade Images'' (2015)

Recent select exhibits, awards and publications

*2011 – Artomatic of Frederick - Frederick MD *2011 - Artists' Gallery Small Works Show - Frederick MD *2011 - Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center - Frederick MD *2011 - Photographer's Forum - Finalist Best of Photography 2011 *2011 - Photographer's Forum - Published in the Best of Photography 2011 year end book *2011 - FCCTV Broadcast - The Visual Arts with David Moreland *2012 - Torpedo Factory Target Gallery New Artists Show - Alexandria VA *2012 - BlackRock Center for the Arts Terrace Gallery - Germantown MD *2012 - Artists' Gallery Solo Exhibit, Small Windows - Frederick MD *2012 - The Deplane Visual Arts Center - Solo Exhibit - Frederick MD *2013 - Kiernan Gallery - Methods - Juried Exhibit by Christopher James - Lexington VA *2013 - Artique Underground - Volt Restaurant - Frederick MD *2014 - YourDailyPhotograph.com - Selected as Emerging / Contemporary Artist *2014 - Kieran Gallery - Fact or Fiction - Juried by Melanie Craven - Lexington VA *2014 - Gormley Gallery - Solo Exhibit - Soul of the Land - Baltimore MD *2015 - Potter Gallery - The Hand Magazine Juried Show - Missouri Western State University, St. Joe MO *2015 - UPA Gallery - Guest Artist - St. Petersburgh FL *2015 - Book: Alternative Photographic Processes: Crafting Handmade Images by Brady Wilks published by

Focal Press Focal Press is a publisher of creative and applied media books and it is an imprint of Routledge/Taylor & Francis. Company history The firm was founded in London in 1938 by Andor Kraszna-Krausz, a Hungarian photographer who migrated to England ...

Notes

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilks, Brady 1980 births 21st-century American photographers Living people Academy of Art University alumni 21st-century American writers Writers on photographic techniques