About

Emily Sheffer is a photographic artist, educator, and book designer.

She is the founder of Dust Collective, a handmade and small edition photography book publisher.

Emily is the studio director for Barbara Bosworth. In 2024, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Hartford.

Emily earned her MFA in photography from The University of Hartford, and BFA in photography from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

She currently lives in Massachusetts.

Contact Emily at emsheffer14@gmail.com
or on Instagram at emilysheffer

My work examines the relationship between landscape, time, and materiality, using photography and book arts to explore narratives within the natural world. I draw connections between geological processes and human experience, through themes of creation, destruction, memory, and myth. Whether working along the cliffs of the Jurassic Coast or crafting handmade artist books, I create tactile photographic experiences that engage viewers with the physical world and its deeper stories.

In Fragments, Dorset Coast, I study erosion and landslides that continually reveal layers of history. In Formation, Sea, rock and water merge into something unfamiliar yet rooted in the natural world. In Of Clay and Outcrop, I draw from ancient visual cultures and geologic formations, examining the earth as a life-giving substance. Glyph reminds the viewer of our connection to the landscape we inhabit and transform. My work invites a consideration of how the earth, as both material and metaphor, shapes human imagination.

Across my practice, I create work that is not only visual but also physical. The materiality of each piece - whether through handmade books, delicate papers, or photographic processes like cyanotype - is integral to the experience. Though these artworks, I invite viewers to touch, feel, and move through layers of history, geology, and myth, encouraging a reflection on our relationship with the natural world.

In all of my work, the photographic medium is central. While much of my image-making happens in the landscape, a significant part of my process takes place in the studio, where I explore how the print or book can exist as an object. I combine analog and digital techniques to create a visual and tactile experience.