For me, photography provides a frame of reference for viewing my surroundings. Through it, I become more sensitive to nuances of color, shape, texture, light and shadow.
I purchased my first 35-mm. single lens reflex camera in 1976 and began teaching myself about photography. It has been a continuing learning experience ever since! Over the years, I’ve taken a wide variety of photographic seminars, classes, and workshops. In 1999 I completed the New York Institute of Photography course.
I have been active and competed in local camera clubs in Albuquerque, NM and Denver, CO holding offices in both clubs. I owe much of my photographic knowledge to the willingness of fellow club members to share their photographic experience and expertise.
I retired in 2001 and began entering my photographs in juried art shows in the Denver Metro area and, more recently, elsewhere in Colorado and beyond.
My favorite photographic subjects have always been flowers (especially close-ups of small flowers or details of larger ones), landscapes, and animals but I do photograph other things when they catch my eye–especially, carousels, antique trains and rodeos. I try to capture my subjects from perspectives the casual observer may not always see or notice.
Following a 2003 workshop with Canadian photographers, Freeman Patterson and André Gallant, I began to use new–to-me techniques that helped me to expand my photographic expression. I started using montages of several (usually 2) images. I also started using multiple exposures in various ways to achieve effects I liked. As I experimented with these techniques, I found photography became more satisfying for me.
In early 2006, I began experimenting with pinhole photography–a very early photographic technology that does not use a lens but, rather, a very tiny hole through which light enters the camera. With no lens to focus the light rays, the image is fuzzy (just how fuzzy is determined by the size of the pinhole); however, all of it is equally fuzzy, no matter how close or distant the subject. Images created using this pinhole technique possess a nostalgic, dreamlike quality.
Since then, I have also experimented with various digital manipulation programs to produce more impressionistic, often dreamlike images. I am also beginning to explore the possibilities of iPhoneography.
Coming soon...
Nancy Myer joined Fine Art America on March 11th, 2014.
