Poppy Lekner: Experimental photographic artist

Poppy Lekner is an experimental photographic artist with interest in alternative photographic processes. Primarily working with cameraless photography.

Current work and work of the last few years has been cameraless using the sun, the darkroom and now more recently in lockdown the moon to create images. Poppy started making cameraless work while teaching photography at Wellington HIgh School after finishing her BFA at Massey in 2007. She came across some old workbooks that used exposure of silver gelatin paper to sunlight to illustrate to students the paper’s light sensitivity- at this time she had inherited her Czech Babi’s (grandmother) books and started making a series of sungrams using these books.

Further series led on to experimenting with other biographical objects and scientific objects from her father’s physics lab. This year she won the Parkin drawing prize for Forward Slash her work made on a brother typewriter. She was been selected as one of 15 experimental photographic artists to show in the Hundred Heroines (London) online exhibition, and Black & White Looking Back Looking Forward 2020 winner in the Alternative Printing category in Black and White Magazine (US).

Her work has featured on PhotoForum, Women in Photography NZ AU and Experimental Photofestival.

She works from home and uses the darkroom at Inverlochy House.

To see more of her work -Instagram @poppylekner