January is Manitou Art Center Month in the Pikes Peak Bulletin
In the town that owns the weirdness it’s characterized by, no place quite encapsulates the creative, quirky spirit of Manitou Springs quite like the Manitou Arts Center. A local staple for nearly four decades, the MAC offers classes, workshops and creative spaces to the community along with a series of galleries to house the works of creatives across the Pikes Peak Region and beyond.
When I moved to Colorado Springs now three years back, I yearned for a space like the Manitou Arts Center. Instead, I created alone, isolated in my apartment. When I finally discovered the space a year into living in the region, I kicked myself for not discovering the power of its community-binding nature sooner. In the spirit of ensuring no one makes the same mistake I did when I was new to our ever-growing city, each week of January the Pikes Peak Bulletin will highlight a MAC artist and their respective makerspace, kicking the series off with a profile of glass artist Jannine Scott, and one of the MAC’s longest running gallery spaces, the First Amendment Gallery.
Abbey Soukup
Artist Higley-Hopkinson teaches ‘noble pursuit’ of darkroom photography
In our newly dawned age of AI, in which art of varying quality is being churned out in quantity by machines, multimedia artist Catherine Higley-Hopkinson is sticking to a tried-and-true medium of the past: photographs developed not in pixels but by following a meticulous, skilled process inside a darkroom.
Leading efforts in the darkroom at the Manitou Art Center for the past two years, Higley-Hopkinson practices and teaches old school darkroom photography as well as photography with newer digital tools, specializing in programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and more. She also runs her own business, Higley Photography and Design.
She believes photography is a “noble pursuit” and she’s ready to help your creative vision become a reality.
“I like helping people develop their vision; it’s just a joy for me to watch aspiring artists and established artists learn new things and bring their visions to life,” Higley-Hopkinson said.
After graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a bachelor’s degree in photography, she and her husband moved back to his hometown of Colorado Springs.
While Higley-Hopkinson said she enjoyed working in the darkroom throughout her college education, it was not a practice she thought would be possible post-grad since she no longer had access to a workspace and supplies like she had while in college.
There’s something magical about taking light and chemicals and coming up with an image. – Catherine Higley-Hopkinson
“I love the technical aspect of working in the darkroom, which I did so much in college, and it didn’t seem like something I could continue outside of college until I found the MAC,” Higley Hopkinson said.
Higley-Hopkinson applauds the MAC for making darkroom photography available at an affordable rate.
“Between the chemicals, the film paper the camera, the lenses – it’s not a cheap hobby,” Higley-Hopkinson said, “So what I love about [the MAC] is it’s so affordable for people. They keep the prices low.”
She said her love for darkroom photography comes from the wonder of rendering an image through the use of chemicals and light; Higley-Hopkinson described the experience as real-life magic.
“There’s something magical about taking light and chemicals and coming up with an image, to watch it develop. There’s this moment with … people who haven’t developed film before. It’s like one of those mystery boxes that kids are so fond of. You’re like, what am I gonna get out of each frame? You know? And you don’t really know for sure that you nailed the shot until it’s been developed because there are so many aspects that are coming together. There’s something more magical than the instant gratification that comes with digital photography,” Higley-Hopkinson said.
She told the Bulletin she believes photography is a medium everyone should delve into, whether they consider themselves creative or not.
“Even if it’s just a hobby, you’ll become capable of capturing a moment with a skill that you’ll be able to look back for years after. When I go on vacation, I don’t buy souvenirs – I just take my camera,” Higley-Hopkinson said.
She said it is also an enhancing skill to other artistic practices in learning how, for example, to get a solid reference photo for individuals practicing 2D mediums.
“Photography is good for people to learn if they need references for other art as well. All of the skills you learn in a photography class come together to make a more well-rounded artist with a better vision,” she continued.
In addition to the classes she teaches at the MAC, Higley-Hopkinson expressed excitement toward a new photography club she’s in the process of organizing in the community. Free of charge, she hopes it’s an opportunity for those interested in developing their photography skills to collaborate and learn from one another.
“I plan on having the club open to the general public at no charge, as a way to help aspiring, passionate artists practice and grow and collaborate,” Higley Hopkinson said.
While there’s no concrete date in place for the club’s start, Higley-Hopkinson said she hopes to have it running by Spring 2025.
For more information on photography workshops and using the darkroom at the MAC, visit ManitouArtCenter.org.
