Welcome to WHEN PHOTOGRAPHY
SHOUT OUT! HELLO SEATTLE.
"When" was a moniker given to me a long time ago in a land far, far away. I tried to get away from it, but it was always there asking a question I didn't have the time to answer. Well, I guess NOW is When. It wasn't intentional for me to end up in Seattle. I'm a transplant, well, not even a transplant, more like a seed that was dropped from the sky and ended up taking roots in a place it wouldn't be expected to grow. I like that flying analogy, but actually I came through the Cascades in the middle of a winter storm, and never plan going back that way. No wonder people never leave Seattle. It was just a family vacation, just a short term assignment for my husband that I tagged along on. I'm VERY "Michigan" being born and raised from north of Detroit, and this ain't 'roit. My stomping grounds are those of artists like Bob Segar, Ted Nuget, Madonna, Kid Rock, Eminem, and of course Techno and Motown. I grew up in a home where my father listened to old timey Country, Folk and Western and Elvis, my mother 40's and 50's ballads. I have a Victrola and collect old slate LPs, often listening to scratchy and crackling renditions of the classical composers and ballads from Kay Star, Bing Crosby, and Pearl Bailey. I love my girl Pearl Bailey. I don't even own music CDs, I prefer my sounds old style. As for my music with it's ambiance, I often add back to my digital photography what technology takes back, you'll find some of my work romantically grainy, often nostalgic. Music and emotions connected to it often inspires my art. The EMP, although I understand most Seattlites don't quite know what to make of it, is, to me the greatest place on earth. Some of my favorite Seattle images are of it and the Space Needle. Being here in Seattle has been a life changing experience, the way things are done and how people communicate on the other side of the country is, well.....different. I've been many places in the U.S., at least 40 states, and I've never been anywhere like Washington. It's taken some time to get used to a very different way of life, the slower process, the laid back attitude of Seattlites. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, well, at least I've religated myself to thinking I am, O.k., I'm not yet, but I can hold a cup of Starbucks like one of you and I'm trying to learn how to not use my hands when I talk. What do you expect, it's a start. One great thing about being in Seattle is that the sights and sounds have had an effect on rekindling my love of photography.
I started out in photography at the age of 16 after being encourged by my rather insane multiple cat owner spinster art teacher Miss. Wooden encouraged me to think about going into the arts, and specifically photography after I used an old wooden and leather bellow plate glass Montawk Kodak to do some black and white images. I had been deeply involved in dramatic and music theater and video production with the local cable company up until them. I had expected to go in that direction with my life. I bought my first camera about the same time meeting my highschool sweetheart. It was true love the first time I felt that lens kiss my cheek, as for the boyfriend, well he couldn't bare sharing my time with the camera. I've reunited with the camera, but have no idea where that fellow went to. I was bored to death in highschool, thank heavens for the arts, they kept me busy. After graduation from high school at the age of 17 I intended on going to Miss Wooden's alma mater Detroit CCS, but I was sidetracked when my portfolio and all of my previous work was destroyed in a flood. I was taken under the wing of a wonderful nationally known photographer and was granted his largest portrait studio. I had several collage professors that had an impact on me, the A back injury put an end to my career in my mid 20s. My camera equipment was destroyed in two subsiquent fires. I married, had a daughter and settled in to a hectic life of being that wife and mother, getting on with things, occasionally picking up the camera, but not seriously. Art went out of my life for a while except for using it as a way to help my daughter with profound physical and communication disabilites to express her needs . Now going into my 40's I have found myself in diverse,beautiful Washington with a renewed passion for the lens. After almost two decades my husband gifted me with a digital replacement camera for our 15th Anniversary as a way to keep me entertained being away from everyone I knew. This last year I found a need to be able to express myself , to show what I see in my new surroundings.
My attitude about photography is a bit different than most, and the last 20 some years of life experiences has molded my views. I look at photography as an art medium, not always as an exact documentation. I feel the digital age has greatly evolved photography and will allow for expression to yet be explored. My interests vary, but I love the works of the great Renoir and Monet, Japanese inspired works of Gustev Klimt, abstract of Georgia O'Keeffe, Pop artists like Warhol, sculptors such as Alexander Caulder. You'll also find a lot of Broadway, Fossie and Weber songs lead me. Like all of the artists I enjoy, I like to intentionally break the rules, test the boundaries and infuse and combine different influences in my photography. My works range from rare visits of traditional photography to very interpretive, expressive light paintings. The sciences, philosophy, psychology, religions, sociology and history also come into play with my works. I have no particular style, being held to a "style" is stifling. Like Jo in LITTLE WOMEN, I have so many interests that I don't expect to be a specialist at anything. I explore, I change, I grow, I learn, I challenge, and I express how and where I am at the moment. So, like that little seed I talked about in the beginning, I am taking root where life has dropped me.
So now you know the "Who", "Where" and "What" of When.
Hope you like how I represent Seattle, Yo. OUT.
