Tilly Dewey

Animal Crackers

From the series Animal Crackers, which began by observing my daughters as they played with animal masks. Through disguise, gesture, and performance, they move between themselves and imagined characters. The masks create a space where identity becomes temporary and unpredictable, allowing curiosity and imagination to take over. Play became part of my photographic process as well. After digitally removing elements from the original photographs, I experimented with ways to return the images to film. Unsatisfied with the appearance of digital negatives, I photographed the altered images directly from my computer screen onto black-and-white film, then produced the final silver gelatin prints in the darkroom. Moving between digital and analog became an act of play itself, allowing experimentation and unexpected outcomes to shape the final images. As a series, Animal Crackers explores play as both subject and process. My daughters play through imagination and transformation, while I play with the possibilities and limitations of the photographic medium. Play is not always comfortable or predictable; unexpected variables can interrupt what we think will happen and push us toward something we did not plan. By allowing those moments of uncertainty to remain, the photographs exist somewhere between reality and invention, structure and chance, and pixel and grain.

Photographer

Tilly Dewey

"“Mom, stop taking pictures of us!” my 12-year-old twin daughters protest as I quietly photograph them. This moment reflects the foundation of my photographic practice, which is rooted in observing life stages marked by fleeting transitions shaped by curiosity and play. My work captures emotional intensity as it develops between awareness and innocence. I work primarily with in-camera black-and-white film photography and produce silver gelatin prints. This analog process is central to the conceptual framework of my work. Taking the photograph, developing the film, and watching the image slowly appear in the darkroom feels like a small act of magic. The process demands attentiveness, patience, and commitment to the moment as it unfolds. By working without post-production, each image remains a direct and honest record of time. This visual record explores moments shaped by structure and predictability alongside a child’s perspective, where planning and chance quietly coexist. By embracing the technical constraints and expressive possibilities of a historical analog medium, my work remains grounded in materiality and presence. The images preserve fleeting gestures and interactions, emphasizing authenticity, impermanence, and the temporal nature of childhood.

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