Meg Turner

Printmaker and photographer working out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her practice spans prints, photography, and installation projects that respond to the landscape and the community she is part of.

In addition to her own work and contract printing, Meg serves as the master printer for local photogravure and wet collodion artist Josephine Sacabo. She founded the New Orleans Community Printshop and has since stepped back from a leadership position to focus on her studio practice.

She shoots primarily with a 4×5 Crown Graphic press camera, working in film and wet collodion.

A circular portrait embedded in a dramatic magenta-to-indigo gradient field, with deep black edges framing the composition

A Day in the Life of a New Orleans Printmaker

Morning in New Orleans begins with heat, traffic, and the particular light that settles over the city after rain. For a printmaker and photographer, those changing conditions are part of the studio routine. A damp street, a peeling façade in the Bywater, or the shadow of a live oak can become a reference for a photographic plate, an etched line, or a layered relief print.

The work is physical and patient. Ink has to be mixed, paper trimmed, negatives checked, and presses cleaned before an image begins to take shape. A day may move between a darkroom, a community printshop, and an installation site, with each setting demanding a different kind of attention.

Traditional processes also create a useful distance from instant images. Film, wet collodion, and hand-pulled prints leave room for accidents, revisions, and evidence of the maker’s hand. For Australian viewers familiar with artist-run spaces in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and regional centres, this slower pace can feel both recognisable and distinctly rooted in New Orleans.

The studio day rarely follows a neat timetable. It responds to drying times, available equipment, weather, exhibition deadlines, and conversations with other artists. Contract printing may sit beside personal work, while a photograph made during a walk becomes the starting point for a larger installation.

Starting with light, weather, and a camera

The first decision is often whether to work indoors or outside. New Orleans light can be brilliant and unforgiving, especially in summer, while cloud cover softens colour and reveals textures that disappear under direct sun. A photographer working with film must consider exposure carefully, since every frame carries a cost and cannot be reviewed immediately.

Wet collodion photography adds another layer of urgency. The plate is prepared, sensitised, exposed, and developed while it is still wet. Dust, temperature, timing, and the chemistry of the bath can all influence the final surface. These variables are not simply technical obstacles; they contribute to the character of an image that may contain stains, uneven tones, or unexpected marks.

A walk through neighbourhood streets can therefore function as research. Fences, porches, storm repairs, signage, and waterlines offer visual information about place and memory. The same habit might lead an Australian artist through Fremantle’s warehouses, a Melbourne laneway, or a suburban industrial strip, where ordinary surfaces become a visual archive.

Preparing the studio for slow processes

Back at the studio, preparation takes up much of the morning. Work surfaces need to be clean, chemicals labelled, and tools arranged within reach. Printmaking rewards a methodical approach because a small error in registration or paper preparation can affect an entire edition. The repetition can be meditative, but it is never automatic.

Traditional printmaking may involve relief, intaglio, monotype, or other techniques that translate a drawing, photograph, or found idea into an impression. Each method has its own pressure, texture, and vocabulary. A hand-pulled print records the relationship between plate, ink, paper, and press in a way that a digital reproduction cannot fully duplicate.

Paper choice matters greatly. Cotton rag papers absorb ink differently from smoother sheets, and humidity changes how a page behaves. This is familiar to Australian artists working through seasonal shifts, from Brisbane’s damp summers to the dry heat of Adelaide or Canberra. In both countries, careful storage and acclimatisation help protect finished editions from warping and damage.

For artists learning the fundamentals, a beginner’s guide can clarify basic tools, terminology, and studio habits before more complex projects begin. The most useful knowledge, however, is usually reinforced through testing, observation, and repeated handling of materials.

Pulling proofs and building an edition

The first print of the day is often a proof rather than a finished work. It reveals whether the plate carries enough ink, whether the image sits correctly on the sheet, and whether the pressure is even across the composition. Adjustments may be subtle: a longer wiping time, a different paper dampness, or a change in the press setting.

A printmaker may spend hours making small decisions that remain invisible to someone seeing only the final image. Proofs are compared side by side, annotated, and sometimes altered through reworking or additional plates. Editioning requires consistency, yet handmade processes always retain minor variations that give each impression its identity.

Contract printing introduces a collaborative dimension. Another artist may arrive with a plate, a photograph, or a developing concept, and the printmaker helps translate that idea into a physical edition. The work calls for technical skill, but also patience and communication. Colour, paper, scale, and finish need to be discussed in practical terms before the press begins.

This kind of service has a clear place in the Australian art market, where independent artists often balance studio practice with teaching, commissions, grants, and sales through galleries or weekend art markets. A reliable contract printer can help an artist produce archival editions without investing in every piece of specialist equipment.

Moving between community, exhibition, and installation work

No studio exists in isolation. Community printshops provide access to presses, darkrooms, chemical facilities, and shared knowledge, especially for artists who work across several processes. They are also places where beginners, established practitioners, students, and visiting artists exchange advice while waiting for paper to soak or plates to cure.

New Orleans has a strong culture of collaboration shaped by neighbourhood networks, music, food, and public celebration. The spirit of a second-line parade, where movement and participation transform a street, can be felt in the social life of an open printshop. Australian audiences may recognise a similar energy in community workshops, artist-run initiatives, and collective studios that support local exhibitions and open-access programs.

By afternoon, the work may shift from the press to an exhibition or installation site. Prints have to be measured, packed, transported, and considered in relation to walls, light, sound, and the movement of visitors. Photographs may be displayed as objects rather than windows, while printed fragments can become part of a larger spatial environment.

Exhibition preparation is often less glamorous than opening night. It involves checking labels, repairing frames, testing hanging systems, and making sure delicate work can withstand transport. In Australia, where artists may send work between Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, and regional galleries, packing methods and freight costs are serious parts of a project’s planning.

Recording the work and closing the day

Late afternoon is a useful time to document progress. Proofs are photographed, chemical notes are recorded, and installation changes are written down before memory turns a sequence of decisions into a vague impression. A well-kept archive can later support a catalogue, grant application, exhibition statement, or conversation with a curator.

The final hours may return to the darkroom. Under safe lighting, a photographic print gradually appears in the developer tray. Timing, agitation, and temperature shape the image, while the rinse and fixing stages determine whether it will remain stable. The process demands concentration because a moment of distraction can alter the tonal balance of the entire sheet.

A New Orleans printmaker’s day also includes less visible work: answering messages, pricing editions, preparing invoices, updating a portfolio, and organising shipping. Australian collectors expect clear information about dimensions, paper, edition size, framing, and postage, particularly when purchasing from an overseas artist. Transparent records make handmade work easier to understand and collect.

Materials and routines worth keeping close:

Practical checks before leaving the studio:

The day may finish with a surface still drying or a plate waiting for another proof. That unfinished quality is part of the practice. Printmaking carries time inside it: the time of exposure, pressure, absorption, revision, and repetition. Photography contributes observation, while installation and collaboration widen the work beyond a single sheet of paper.

For visitors and collectors in Australia, the appeal lies in this meeting of process and place. A print made in New Orleans can speak through its materials to audiences at a Melbourne gallery, a Sydney artist-run space, a Brisbane design market, or a regional exhibition in Tasmania. Its origin remains important, but the tactile language of ink, paper, and light travels widely.

Explore Meg Turner’s prints, photographs, installations, and collaborative practice, then get in touch to discuss artwork, exhibitions, or contract printing services.