Kimberly Weatherred Photography

I had a solo photography exhibition, called “Minutiae,” which opened on June 30, 2019, at the Space Place gallery in Nizhny Tagil, Russia.  I’m very pleased with how it turned out!  Many thanks go to the curator,  Evgeny Komuhin, who did an excellent job with coordinating the show!  Photos were taken by Evgeny.  My artist statement for this exhibition is below.

Minutiae by Kimberly Weatherred

 mi·nu·ti·ae /məˈn(y)o͞oSHēˌē,məˈn(y)o͞oSHēˌī/

noun

the small, precise, or trivial details of something. "the minutiae of everyday life"

 The images that make up this body of work focus on the minute, easily overlooked details of day-to-day life.  At times these details are poignant, at times they bring dread or something more sinister, and at times they are simply there, in the briefest of silences.

In this series, you will find these themes of poignancy, dread, uncertainty, and silence represented by the utilization of negative space, isolation, fog, and movement around an unmoving object.  The muted tones in the photographs give a sense of nostalgia and a noiseless, dream-like quality.

This is a self-portrait taken in my bedroom, with a combination of natural lighting and the Nikon SB-700 AF Speedlight wrapped in pink cellophane.

Silly old bear.

This is from a small photo session I did today of my son, Daegan.

"There is nothing ... Nothing, unless it might be - unless it is permitted to ask, nay, to name a single strand of your hair, which surpasses the gold of the earth as the stars surpass the gems of the mine.  I do not ask for such a gift.  But you commanded me to name my desire."

Hi, everyone!  Wow, what a mouthful of a title for my very first blog post, eh?  Let me just start with a brief introduction, and then we’ll get into our topic.

I’m a Houston-area photographer, originally from Northeast Texas, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Photography from Sam Houston State University.  I got into photography about 12 years ago, when I was in community college.  I liked taking photos of old, abandoned houses and landscapes.  Photographing people was, and still is at times, a challenge for me, due to my social anxiety.  That is why I tend to be my own model in many of my studio shots.  It takes persistence and constantly placing myself outside of my comfort zone to be able to photograph other people.  It always ends up being a rewarding experience, because it is a chance to connect with people and to also help them overcome the anxiety of being the subject of a shot.

There are other challenges I face as a photographer, like exploring a new style of photography.  That is what brings us to the title of this post, “Finding Beauty in the Mundane:  Exploring Minimalist Photography with Items in the Home.”

As someone who obsesses over photos of icy, Scandinavian landscapes and mountainscapes, I often find myself discouraged that I cannot produce the same images, being that I live in Texas and have no money to spare for travel expenses.  I always had this notion that to make a “good” photograph, you have to show your audience something visually stunning, something with purpose, or something that evokes a profound meaning.  This is a great way to think, but the way you look at it can either push you to creative success or hinder you.

In recent years, I have learned that you can make something visually stunning out of close-up, intimate glimpses at objects.  Yes, a forest full of trees makes for a beautiful shot, but what about the leaves and bark that make up those trees?  Sometimes that’s all you have access to, and sometimes that’s all you need.

Coming to this conclusion has brought my excitement for photography to a whole new level, but I still have to remind myself when to bring the camera in a little closer when I’m not reaching the level of satisfaction I’m looking for.

A characteristic of a large amount of my work is the use of shadow, which to me conveys a sense of mystery, loneliness, and sometimes fear.  It is that dark, negative space that speaks volumes, but one thing I have learned through my most recent obsession with Japanese photography is that the use of light can have the same effect as shadow.

One Japanese photographer whose work I have fallen in love with is Hiromi Kakimoto.  You can view her album titled “Little World” here:  http://www.hiromikakimoto.com/portfolio/Little/index.html.

One thing that makes her images and others like hers so impactful is the attention paid to lines and negative space.  The viewer’s eye is literally led on a path through the photograph, which creates a story.  The negative space gives a feeling of nothingness and allows the viewer to reflect.  The use of natural light gives a very organic presence to the image, while the use of a wide aperture allows more light in and gives the photo a more shallow depth of field, bringing some things into focus and blurring others.  It reads like a memory or a dream.  The flattened, slightly muted colors also give a sense of nostalgia.

As someone who always wants to go out to photograph, or retreat to my garage studio to play with light boxes and such, I decided to challenge myself to explore these techniques.  Here are my results.

Here, I will highlight some of the areas I focused on the most, using that last photo as an example:

I did not do anything to compose this shot; my toddler has a tendency to leave his toys anywhere they may fall, so I just looked around my home.  This was a different experience for me, but it was one I found to be very relaxing, and I love the poignant results that came of it.