Beth Macraild O'Loughlin

Beth MacRaild O’Loughlin | Untitled 2026 | Black and white photograph on aluminium, 1/5 + 2 AP | 20.3 x 25.4 cm (unframed)

Traces: Memory in landscape

Traces explores the notion of trace as memory - a mark or a moment in the landscape that connects a present glimpse with a shadow passing. Each image is a contemplation on the transient nature of our moments and the memories that inhabit these places - of what can be seen and that which is unseen, leaving a trace that signifies the passing of time and the coexistence of the past in the present.  

Traces brings together two new bodies of work for the artists, Eveline Chan and Beth MacRaild O’Loughlin, who have also worked collaboratively on some pieces, using a range of printmaking and analogue photographic practices.

The exhibition offers a space to reflect on the places we inhabit and visit, the memories we make, and the tangible and intangible traces we leave behind. 

Photographing throughout the New England region of NSW, MacRaild O’Loughlin explores the landscape through the ground glass of medium and 8x10” large format analogue photography. Traces offers a space to reflect, to enter, to absorb.

The methodology of MacRaild O’Loughlin’s practice is integral to the realisation of this work. The passage of time reflective in the length of exposures within each frame. They are moments of pause, with the shutter open for long periods - the light and quintessence of the subject literally soaked within the layers of emulsion and silver halide crystals, one negative, one breath at a time. The materiality of the process grounds these temporal intersections between a duality of timelines that are both past and present.  

The approach leaves the subject suspended between abstraction and figuration; meditative works suggestive and revealing of their patchwork of terrains and intimate details of organic forms; what is seen and unseen, revealed and waiting.

Traces: Memory in landscape, New England Regional Art Museum from February 6 - March 22 2026. For all sales, to view the collaborative works between Eve and Beth, and further information please contact NERAM.