When Ansel Adams said, “You don’t take a photograph, you make it,” he might as well been speaking about Centreville-based photographer Anne Nielsen. For more than twenty years, Anne has made photos of her beloved Eastern Shore but not in any typical fashion. In 2010, Nielsen decided to photographic Native Americans on the Delmarva but instead of a standard camera, she chose instead the use of a wooden camera and an 1864 Voigtländer lens, painstakingly uses the same techniques that were found in the 19th Century, which results in a single image that has taken minutes, rather than seconds, to capture.
Fast forward to 2016, and she has updated her camera to a digital one, but she has not removed the complex nature of her photography. In her short interview with the Spy before Friday’s opening of her work at the Massoni Gallery, she describes the enormous length she takes to get the right shot, with the right model, at the right time of day.
This video is approximately two minutes in length
Ms. Nielsen’s work can be seen as part of “SPARK” a mid-winter exhibition opening at the Carla Massoni Gallery on Friday, February 5th. For more information, please go here.
Tim Fields says
Anne’s description of her shooting session that morning perfectly illustrates another approach to photography; one where we do not simply acquire the image, but instead submit ourselves to the environment and subject matter, remaining open to possibilities we could not possibly anticipate. I think this is something beyond most people’s idea of what “making” an image is. One might fairly say that a studio still life is “made” since it is crafted ab-initio – every element, every shadow and every highlight controlled by the artist. Quite to the contrary, and more exciting in my opinion, in this image we get to see the photographer’s response to an event beyond her control – the sudden scarlet sky and orange figure. Standing in the same spot at the same moment, no one else could have produced the same images because countless other decisions are being made every moment that reflect well honed instincts and a very certain artistic sensibility. I think it’s not unlike jazz improvisation – where surprises in underlying chord voicings and key modulations inspire spontaneous and authentic responses from the artist.