Seeing the world through a camera’s lens

By Catherine Amos

Published: June 12, 2008

Instant gratification. Whether it was a professional or an amateur, those involved in Windmore Foundation for the Arts’ 2008 photography workshop seemed to appreciate the immediacy of results with digital photography as opposed to other art mediums.

This year’s workshop — Windmore’s third annual — was based around abstract photography, resulting in a 14-piece exhibition at Village Frameworks & Gallery now through June 20. Local photographer Jack Daily taught the workshop, which consisted of a tutorial at Windmore’s April meeting and a discussion of submissions at the May meeting.

“These are not really amateurs,” Daily said of the class. “Half of them are already established artists in other mediums. Some are beginners, which makes it fun.”

In past years, themes have been based on downtown shots or things relating to the photographer. This year, the group “kind of gravitated toward abstract,” Daily said. After the tutorial, he sent the group out to shoot their subjects. Two weeks later, his inbox was full of conceptual images, from staircases to bones.

“We had a diverse group,” he said. “There are some real artists in this group.”

Linda Duncan won the award for most creative for her photograph, “Inner Space 2.” At first glance, the shot seems to depict another world, an orb floating above a sparkling solar system. In fact, the final shot — which Duncan said took about 500 tries — is a close-up of a hand-blown piece of glass with an air bubble reflecting a piece of stained glass.

“The whole idea was to incorporate others’ art,” said Duncan, who is also an avid painter and sculptor. “I had a blast doing it. It was an excellent theme because it allowed everyone to express their creativity.”

Like Duncan’s, many of the shots require a second glance to determine the subject. Megan Haught’s photo, “Boney Landscape,” is exactly what its name describes, though the abstractness of the focus point leaves the viewer pondering the subject. Actually the jawbone and teeth from “some sort of long-nosed animal,” the grayish white bones look almost like architecture.

“I thought it would be pretty simple,” said Haught, who typically photographs children, “but to go out and shoot exclusively abstract was really intimidating.”

Both Haught and Duncan said they appreciated the instant gratification of digital photography. Others enjoyed getting to know their cameras better through Daily’s tutorial.
Lori Sorrentino, who considers herself a “serious amateur photographer” said people in the class began “discovering their own cameras and their own talents.” Her best photo was called, “Over Easy,” and depicted a mockingbird egg she’d found abandoned and placed on her cast iron frying pan.

“I just thought it was a neat shot,” Sorrentino said. “I took it with natural light over my stove so it’s just kind of an interesting play.”

Some photographs depicted items from nature, others depicted manmade items. Liz Roberts caught a dreamlike shot of a staircase in Barcelona while visiting her brother. Roberts is a retired RN who prefers painting to photography but said she found that there was a lot of creativity through photography.

Jean Wilder also began to learn more about her own camera through Daily’s tutorial and decided on an image she shot of a chicken shed called, “Emerald Cross.” She happened upon the old, worn shed with a green hand truck by its side, looking a little like a cross.

To further examine these and the rest of the 14 abstract images, stop by Village Frameworks.

“It’s just such a great expression,” Sorrentino said of photography. “I heard a saying one time, that ‘It takes great imagination to be a good photographer because an artist can invent things, but a photographer has to take ordinary, everyday things and find the extraordinary in them.’”

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .