The Otis Art Institute, 1965-1969
Painting Major, Graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1969
- Studio Painter, San Francisco, California 1970-1980
- Studio Painter and Photographer, Northeastern Transvaal, South Africa, 1981-1982
- Studio Painter and Photographer, Berkeley, California 1985-1989
- Opened Photography Studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1993-1997
- Photographer, Los Angeles, California 1998-present
Photographs held in private collections and shown in galleries in California and New Mexico.
Artist Statement
My interest in photography dates back to 1968, when I first photographed the lotus at Echo Park. My years as a studio painter really became a foundation for my work in photography. The energy and sense of movement in the paintings, along with a mostly painterly style, can be found in the imagery in my photographs.
As a photographer, I was mostly influenced by the early and second generation pictorialist photographers. The strongest influences were the works of Eugene Atget, French, 1856-1927, Ruth Bernhard, American, born in Germany, 1905- , Ansel Adams, American, 1902-1984, and the Hollywood studio photographers, especially the work of George Hurrell of MGM, American, 1904-1992.
I studied studio portraiture with Paul Bishop, Jr., in the Bishop family home/studio in Berkeley, California, printed in the ASUC darkroom and sold my first image at the Vision Gallery in San Francisco.
I opened a portrait studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1993. I printed all work in black and white in my darkroom. My then husband (now deceased) David William Bullock, hand built the darkroom with my first son, Aaron David Bullock, now an emerging photographer, specializing in Industrial Landscapes in Los Angeles).
My portrait work was a result of collaboration with clients, and brought great satisfaction to me, as a photographer. I found that the camera was an incredible tool for showing not only physical beauty, but the inner strength and spirit as well.
In New Mexico, I also photographed the rodeo! I experimented for several years using a slow shutter to show the movement of the riders. Years later, when I returned to L.A., I used this equine photography experience to photograph thoroughbreds at Santa Anita, as well as focusing on portraits of many riders.
During the studio years in New Mexico, I began the Botanical Series, using the chromogenic film, Ilford XP2. I used a close up lens with strong studio backlighting for most of these. They bear a strong resemblance to platinum prints, with the characteristic velvet like image, when printed and toned on fiber paper.
I am concurrently working on a series of images of women with doves, showing my vision of women as peacemakers. I believe that we hold the future of peace literally in our hands - and that many women and men have an inborn knowledge of how to make peace in the world.
Since all of my images were exposed on film up until just a few years ago, and my approach as a photographer was similar to many pictorialists, where the images were enhanced in the darkroom using surface manipulation (burning and dodging, Ansel Adams style) I've been able to transfer this knowledge to the digital darkroom, using Photoshop and Epson printers.
I am now using a fine digital counterpart to my Canon Elan, the Canon EOS 10D, with all of my older EF lenses. While I enjoy the digital advantages in image capture, and the great ease of posting and filing images, I have not given up using film and film cameras, as well as the medium format.
Making a transition from traditional film photography and darkroom work to using the computer with Photoshop is really a new form of photography, and has its advantages, and also disadvantages as well. I tend to agree, in part, with Bruce Barnbaum in his Thoughts on Digital Photography:
Digital has new and unique properties unavailable through traditional means, but traditional methods are immensely powerful, and in the hands of a true artist, will yield incredible results.
Well, photographically, it's a new day, and I am enjoying the best of both worlds, film and digital...and will continue to develop both in my current and future work.