Photography is back at Creativity Explored! It was probably sometime in the 1990s when Creativity Explored's chemical darkroom was dismantled, and photography as a medium ceased to exist at the studio. In June 2020 five Creativity Explored artists began meeting once a week in a new online Photography Group.
Each of the artist photographers selected one of their own images, and the teaching artists Glenn Peckman and Joe McGovern selected a second image to create photo enlargements printed for this one-wall exhibition.
It was important to the teaching artists that a few photographs were printed and exist off of a digital screen, to help give the artists a sense that their photographs were works of art. Local photographer and master printer Seth Dickerman visited with the group online, and gave them a virtual tour of his photo lab, Dickerman Prints. He explained to the group how digital printing worked and what options the artists had when printing their photographs. Dickerman Prints produced the enlargements for this exhibition and generously donated the first round of test prints.
The Photography Group was among the first online program offerings for Creativity Explored. CE artists needed to provide a digital camera or camera phone, have access to an email account and internet, and be able to connect regularly in online Zoom sessions. Over the past six months, the Photography Group has covered an abbreviated survey of the history of photography, presented tutorials on digital camera use, and each week present the photographic work of participating artists.
We wish we could invite you into the studio to enjoy the prints in person. Until then, take your time with their photographs and individual artist statements here.
Connie Chu
They said: A picture is worth a 1000 words.
A picture can be interpreted any way your heart desires
In your mind's eye
In your dream
In your words
In the way you describe a picture
To me
A picture is what stands out
It emboldens me
It holds my attentions
It lures me to distraction
It is art in still life or caught unawares
Photography is caught by the photographer in motion
Andrew Wong
I like to take pictures of my favorite things. I can look back and remember beautiful, fun, and happy things.
I like the Creativity Explored Photography Group because they are my friends. Joe and Glenn are nice good teachers and I like my friends Rory, Jay D, and the girl who likes birds. It is a very nice group. I used to go on lunch walks with Larry and took lots of pictures.
Joseph “JD” Green
As an artist, I see photography very differently than visual art. Photography helps me to focus on the eye more and notice different things I hadn't if I was doing a drawing.
Yukari Sakura
As I take photos, I capture the stories, the histories, as well as the imaginations for the stories, just like people making movies. And of course. I enjoy the Photo Group. It is fun! And it is like a virtual adventure. As a proud member of the Creativity Explored’s Photography Group, I like to take photos of deserts, insects, animals, landscapes and skyscapes. Butterflies and bees are one of my favorites, because for butterflies, they have elegant, beautiful, and colorful wings. And for bees, they look like cute cartoon characters wearing striped pants (which is actually their abdomens) and what I like about them is that they have wings. And I also learned that bees help nature by pollinating and make honey. They also work alongside with butterflies. I also like spiders, since I thought of some that are cute cartoons (and sometimes sinister villains). For butterflies and bees, they’re important for the whole nature. And without them, it would be a doomsday for the whole earth.
