PHOTOGRAPHER PAULA CHAMLEE AND A FEW WORDS ON COLLECTING PHOTOGRAPHY
For our month long exhibit of
“Photographs from the Traditional Darkroom”, paying tribute to black and
white film photography, I am introducing you each day to one of our
current exhibitors. I may add information on a photographer important
in history, or today I am including a few words about collecting
photography from Walter Magazine.
PAULA CHAMLEE discovered photography during her return to college in the 1980′s while completing a BFA degree in painting and quickly found direct involvement with the world outside the studio to be irresistible. In the twenty-six years since, she has traveled extensively, making photographs both in the United States and abroad. Paula has published seven books over the years, ranging from personal vision, over Chicago, Texas to images photographed in Iceland.
Chamlee has been the recipient of several grants, including one from the Leeway Foundation for “Excellence in Photography.” Her photographs have been widely exhibited in museums and galleries, most recently at Gallery 291 in San Francisco and at the James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Her photographs are in numerous collections, both public and private in the United States and abroad. She is collected in thirty museums in the United States.
More recently Chamlee is working on a series of photographs of the Texas Panhandle from the air and a series of studio still lifes. In addition to her still photography, Chamlee made her first film, Flow, while in Iceland in 2006, and from footage made in 2010 is currently working on new films from Iceland.
Dyrholaey – Iceland P. Chamlee
A FEW WORDS ABOUT COLLECTING PHOTOGRAPHY, TAKEN FROM WALTER MAGAZINE
W.M. Hunt is one of the world’s greatest photography collectors. He lives in New York and over his lifetime has purchased thousands of photographs, all with one simple theme: The diverted eye. He and his collection travel the world, and his dance card is filled with speaking engagements and lectures.
So when I’m asked how to go about buying a photograph or how to start a collection, I tend to give them Bill’s advice to me from 2006: “Photography is unlike any other contemporary art form,” he told me. “Everyone in the 21st century, at least in the Western world, has the experience of having looked at millions of photographs. We see them all the time, and we know what a good photograph is. We are all experts. The way to collect is to buy a photograph and take it home. Look, react, and commit. If you’re burdened with worries about the photograph’s provenance, the photograph’s ‘greatness,’ the photograph’s price, etcetera, you may be missing the point. Pursue the experience that’s pleasurable. When you see an image that thrills you, you must have that piece in your life. Buy it, take it home, hang it on the wall, and live with it.”
He said something else particularly memorable: “I’ve come to understand my collection as a manifestation of my unconscious. Buying photographs has led me to on an amazingly personal journey and, curiously enough, it has been a tool for gaining an even stronger sense of myself. It is a completely symbiotic relationship: As I have grown, so has the collection, and vice versa.”
PAULA CHAMLEE discovered photography during her return to college in the 1980′s while completing a BFA degree in painting and quickly found direct involvement with the world outside the studio to be irresistible. In the twenty-six years since, she has traveled extensively, making photographs both in the United States and abroad. Paula has published seven books over the years, ranging from personal vision, over Chicago, Texas to images photographed in Iceland.
Chamlee has been the recipient of several grants, including one from the Leeway Foundation for “Excellence in Photography.” Her photographs have been widely exhibited in museums and galleries, most recently at Gallery 291 in San Francisco and at the James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Her photographs are in numerous collections, both public and private in the United States and abroad. She is collected in thirty museums in the United States.
More recently Chamlee is working on a series of photographs of the Texas Panhandle from the air and a series of studio still lifes. In addition to her still photography, Chamlee made her first film, Flow, while in Iceland in 2006, and from footage made in 2010 is currently working on new films from Iceland.
Dyrholaey – Iceland P. Chamlee
A FEW WORDS ABOUT COLLECTING PHOTOGRAPHY, TAKEN FROM WALTER MAGAZINE
W.M. Hunt is one of the world’s greatest photography collectors. He lives in New York and over his lifetime has purchased thousands of photographs, all with one simple theme: The diverted eye. He and his collection travel the world, and his dance card is filled with speaking engagements and lectures.
So when I’m asked how to go about buying a photograph or how to start a collection, I tend to give them Bill’s advice to me from 2006: “Photography is unlike any other contemporary art form,” he told me. “Everyone in the 21st century, at least in the Western world, has the experience of having looked at millions of photographs. We see them all the time, and we know what a good photograph is. We are all experts. The way to collect is to buy a photograph and take it home. Look, react, and commit. If you’re burdened with worries about the photograph’s provenance, the photograph’s ‘greatness,’ the photograph’s price, etcetera, you may be missing the point. Pursue the experience that’s pleasurable. When you see an image that thrills you, you must have that piece in your life. Buy it, take it home, hang it on the wall, and live with it.”
He said something else particularly memorable: “I’ve come to understand my collection as a manifestation of my unconscious. Buying photographs has led me to on an amazingly personal journey and, curiously enough, it has been a tool for gaining an even stronger sense of myself. It is a completely symbiotic relationship: As I have grown, so has the collection, and vice versa.”
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