About

Sam Hollenshead is the creator of Botanical Darkroom.  He gathers plants and experiments with photographic techniques to explore botanical beauty. He uses a combination of analog and digital processes to create unique, original works and prints.  

Experimentation is the engine of his creative process and botanical subjects are the fuel that propel his work forward.  The history of photography is filled with processes and techniques that are used to document and capture some version of the world around us.  Sam is interested in studying these processes and then applying them to his botanical subjects to create fresh interpretations.  He often photographs and experiments with the same plant repeatedly to see how different processes affect the final artistic outcome.   

Much of his work could be described as “plant portraiture.” Sam often studies his subjects in the isolation of a studio-like environment. Without competing elements, an individual plant can be examined and understood as a unique living organism and single artistic subject.  Once photographed, an individual image/negative provides a new creative launching point. In the darkroom, Sam creatively manipulates his botanical negatives to reveal new layers of beauty- ones that are not always apparent on the surface.  Hence the name of this project: Botanical Darkroom. 

With the boundless variety of color, shape and size in the natural world, the artistic potential of plants is limitless. For Sam, plants act as a muse that stimulate his creativity and scientific-like investigations. Foraging for plants brings him closer to nature and gives him a greater understanding of his own place in it.  Plants are simply incredible- whether they are growing out of a tiny seam of concrete in a New York City sidewalk or thriving deep in the rainforest of Costa Rica.

When he isn’t making botanical images, Sam works as a commercial photographer in New York City.  He lives with his wife, two sons and a chocolate lab in Brooklyn, NY.