Rachel Winslow
Rachel Winslow is an experimental analog photographer living in Leland, MI. Her work focuses on the use of vintage, toy, and homemade cameras as well as expired film, prisms, and multiple exposures to create abstract and dreamlike images.
For the past decade, Rachel has been creating Solargraphy prints, using pinhole cameras to capture the sun’s path across the sky over an extended period of time. Rachel makes her cameras out of empty beer cans, strategically placing them around Northern Michigan. The cameras are attached to trees and left for many months to expose. These makeshift cameras beautifully capture the sun's path through the sky, offering a unique visual narrative of celestial movement.
The resulting image shows the sun’s trails as it moves daily due to the Earth’s rotation. It’s a fascinating way to visualize the sun's movement and the passage of time in a single image.
29 Sunrises over Lake Leelanau
81 Sunrises over Lake Leelanau
365 Days over lake Michigan
730 Sunrises over Lake Michigan
365 Sunrises over Lake Michigan
How long have you lived in the Traverse City region? What brought you here? What keeps you here?
My husband and I moved up to Northern Michigan from Chicago in 2020 to be the innkeepers at Whaleback Inn in Leland. We absolutely love it up here and plan to stay in the Traverse City area permanently. The close proximity to nature and charming small towns, as well as the excellent creative community, has captured my heart.
How does your art practice connect you to the community or vice versa?
My photography has connected me to lots of other creatives in this area. I’ve had the opportunity to create visual components for other artists’ projects, such as album covers, portraits, and promotional images. Solargraphy allows me to show my community a unique perspective of the scenery around us. I’ve been showing my work in local exhibits and art shows and have enjoyed sharing my process with curious minds.
What is an underappreciated aspect of our region?
Everyone loves summertime in Northern Michigan, but I really look forward to the slow days of winter. We are so lucky to have a season to rest and reflect.
Tell us about your process for one of these works.
Solargraphy is a photographic technique that involves using pinhole cameras to capture extremely long exposure images of the sun’s path across the sky. The lines in the image represent the sun’s movement over time, showcasing its daily or seasonal trajectory. Each line corresponds to a different day or period, creating a unique visual record of the sun’s journey. I make Solargraphy cameras out of empty beer cans and darkroom photographic paper and then I attach the cameras to trees for long periods of time - anywhere from a month to a few years. After they are done exposing, I collect the cameras and scan the image into my computer to make prints of my work. It is a very slow process that requires lots of patience.
Do you have any local art crushes?
My number one art crush and real-life crush is my husband, Ty Maxon - he’s an amazing songwriter and visual artist. His dedication to his crafts is so inspiring to me, and I love that we have made such a creative little world in our home. A few other local artists that I admire are Amanda Acker, Alyssa Smith, Rebecca Deneau, Dana Falconberry, and Ben Rebant. There are so many wonderful artists in this area, and it’s so hard to pick just a few!