Bonnie Newman’s “First Light” still hangs at WinCam, so be sure to see it before it leaves in March! To learn more about her process we asked her questions for Griffin State of Mind!
Tell us a little about your background.
Thirteen years ago, I retired from a career in higher education and nonprofit management. I love travel and have always taken snapshots that captured the beauty and special aspects of the places I visited. And I have always found solace and spirituality in nature. Eight years ago, I upgraded my camera, started taking photography courses, and connected with a community of photographers, all of which helped me to strengthen my skills and have fun experimenting with my photography.
Tell a little about your recent exhibition, “First Light,” and how it was conceived.
I have a small cottage with windows on a pond on Cape Cod. Spending time there provided the opportunity to deeply notice my everchanging environment. I was particularly captivated by the morning light on the pond. I started taking photos from my window, my dock, and my kayak. In time, I felt I was simply recording the view, and not capturing the spirit of the area. I discovered the feature on my DSLR camera that allowed me to combine two images in-camera, one over the other, which made it possible to create more imaginative photos. I have since taken hundreds of multiple-exposure images that celebrate the early morning light on the pond.
How has your approach to photography evolved since beginning the project?
My work on this project has pushed me to experiment even more, utilizing intentional camera movement, (ICM) along with multiple exposures, to create “reinvisioned” landscapes, which capture the emotion I feel in the beauty and serenity of nature.
Has there been a Griffin Museum exhibition that has particularly engaged or moved you?
I always enjoy the exhibitions–I love seeing the many ways that photographers use the medium of photography to share their vision and what is important to them, and I gravitate to those who use experimental/out of the box techniques, and new ways of seeing nature and landscape.
What is a book, song or visual obsession you have at the moment?
I’ve had the opportunity to photograph a two-hundred-year-old historic barn that is about to be dismantled and rebuilt. I loved documenting the many discarded, deteriorating items left there for years, and then once the items were cleared out, to notice the elements of the structure of the barn. I particularly like the shapes, textures and shadows, the centuries-old construction techniques, the deteriorating wood, the old birds nests, and even the invasion of ivy through the dusty broken windows.
ABOUT BONNIE NEWMAN
Bonnie Newman is a photographer, outdoor enthusiast and avid traveler. With her camera, she experiences and captures the splendor of nature, compelling moments, and new environments.
Newman finds inspiration in nature, whether an expansive landscape or a detail that catches her eye. She sees abstraction everywhere and is attracted to shapes, transparency, distortion and fragmentation. Her recent landscape work utilizes the techniques of transparency and reflection, double exposure, and intentional camera movement to reveal her singular vision of a scene. The resulting images vacillate between serene and edgy, offering a flight from reality combined with a hint of mystery.
Newman’s photographs have been exhibited in a solo show at the Cary Public Library in Lexington MA. She has also exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography and juried in to group exhibitions at the Cambridge Art Association, Arlington Center for the Arts, Plymouth Center for the Arts, and Gallery Twist in Lexington.
She photographs for the Brewster Conservation Trust and the Town of Lexington Conservation Department, and her photos are on display at Brewster (MA) Town Hall, and the Lexington (MA) Visitor’s Center and in private collections.
Newman has taken photography courses with Emily Belz at the Arlington Center for the Arts, Griffin Museum of Photography, and the DeCordova Museum. (2015-2020). She participated in the Atelier 33 at the Griffin, has taken online workshops with Valda Bailey and Doug Chinnery, and workshops on Cape Cod with Steven Koppel and Julia Cumes .
Newman lives in Lexington and Brewster MA.
She can be found at http://bonnienewmanphotography.com/
WinCam is located in Winchester, at 32 Swanton Road, Winchester, MA 01890
