About Olivia
Olivia Morgan was born & raised in Baltimore County in the summer of 1998. She was raised by her two loving parents and of that, her mom shot film quite often. Olivia's mom would hand her cheap point & shoot film cameras from a small age. She was unaware of it at the time, but photography would soon enough be the very thing that grounds her most. She graduated from Towson University & had the very fortunate opportunity to take a B&W 35mm Film Developing & Darkroom… more
Baltimore Scenes
@baltimore_scenes on instagram was started by a few friends & myself in February of 2024. Originally it was designed to highlight a specific space within the art community of Baltimore- photography. Every week, we curate a post compiled of local photographers work-what we call “weekly roundups” and we try to highlight new artist when we can. We also host monthly Photo Walks: choosing a different neighborhood in Baltimore each month to wander & explore with our cameras; and it started out small. Ten heads showed the first walk- to now we have had over 100 people show up for one walk! We encourage all demograpahics to join, you don't need fancy or expensive gear. It's a good way to connect people in the art community, make new friends, and gain new skills to practice. Im forever grateful for this community and I hope our small instagram page can perhaps one day turn into something bigger. We were fortunate enough to have been asked to be apart of a short documentary with Maryland TV Station-which can be seen here : https://video.mpt.tv/video/be-inspired-a-day-of-thanks-film-festival-h8ljfy/
Dark Room
Being in the darkroom is a magical, inexplicable feeling. It will have you losing track of time for 7 hours at a time. I would go in, early in the morning and wouldn't come out until the sun had gone down, unintentionally, trying to perfect the perfect print and exposure. It was a massive privilege for me to have access to such an incredibly stocked dark room at my college, Towson University. I was lucky in more than one way. It was my senior year, my very last semester and I needed 1 random elective credit, I saw they offered a film developing & printing class which raised my eyebrows. I had been wanting to learn for years and here was my opportunity. I noticed you needed a pre-rec for the class in which I did not have. I emailed the professor (a semester before the class started) and explained to her how passionate I am about film photography, how I had been doing it for at least 5 years at this point and how this was my last semester/last chance to get into the darkroom and that I would do anything for a spot in the class. She responded back mentioning she really loved my passion and would happily wave the pre-rec for me so I could be one of the ten people in this prestigious class. I was over the moon excited. I learned so much in this class, and firmly believe it has made my photography skills infinitely better. To be able to witness, let alone learn the science behind making a tangible photograph is a knowledge ill carry with me for the rest of my life. The chemistry making your image appear right before your eyes is an unmatched feeling that my words could never articulate.
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My WorkThe first time I had ever taken a photo with my work- exponentially grateful I chose to do this, in this moment. As an archivist, it's important to savor all these special moments, and I was/am extremely proud of this project so it should be documented!
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Baltimore Vs Nashville Street Photography -
8x10 Double ExposureThis is an 8x10 double exposure print I made in the darkroom, shot in Nashville, TN. 35mm ilford HP5 plus film stock, shot on my Canon AE1. I LOVE making double exposures. I actually made my entire final project in my film developing & printing class, a series of double exposed street photography images comparing the street life from Baltimore & Nashville.
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AgitationAgitating in the fix bath real quick!
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Film DryerAfter you process your film, it needs to be dried for about 15 min before you can start to make prints with them. Here is me during the hanging process.
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8x10 -
Contact SheetsA contact sheet is the first print you make for a roll before you chose an individual image to blow up. You develop all the negatives and cut them into rows of 5- slide them into a clear binder sheet and you expose the entire binder sheet of negatives on top of a piece of photo paper. This allows you to see a small glimpse of each photo you shot on the roll so you can see which ones are worth blowing up -as printer paper and the chemistry to develop are very expensive, you have to be meticulous and strategic with your choices. The contact sheets are great gifts to frame, seeing the film roll sprockets and frame #'s above the images is unlike anything a smartphone image could produce.
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Negative Sneak-Peak