Karey Bancroft

After a 20-year career in portrait photography, I have returned to my life-long passion: photographic processes that resemble Old Masters paintings.

My current work features botanical elements that I have grown or sourced locally, then captured as images; often on Polaroid film. The resulting photos are hand-colored or embellished with a combination of pastels, pencils, crystals, gold leaf, clay or acrylics. This is a true labor of love and exploration for me as I continue the search for the most painterly photographic process.

Grow. Most of the florals in my photos are grown on my property. I also love to source flowers at the spectacular farmer's market in Charlotte. I certainly do not have a green thumb, but it’s fun to order seeds and bulbs of my favorite varieties and watch them turn into something  beautiful. These peonies were amazing!

Shoot. I have loved Polaroid instant film
for decades. Today I shoot with several different refurbished cameras as well as my Nikon D850 to create the dreamy, colorful images I love. They can be full of anomalies: scratches, light leaks, halos and I love every imperfection. 

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Embellish. After scanning the photos at a high resolution, they are printed on 100% cotton hot press paper. I use pencils, pastel, paint, Austrian crystals, wax, clay shapes or gold leaf to enhance and embellish them, making each a unique piece of art.