Bermuda Photographer - Amanda Temple: Wabi sabi

Showing posts with label Wabi sabi. Show all posts

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Harbour Nights

The last time I participated in Harbour Nights was about eight years ago! But tonight I am returning to be a part of this wonderful Bermuda summer street festival. I am pretty excited, and nervous. So if you would like to come by and say hello, that would be lovely. I'll be across from HSBC on Front Street.
Let me know what you think about my tiny canvases...

My feet are purely for scale... They are from 6x6 to 12x12...

Friday, 12 December 2014

Frolicking Fiddleheads

Frameworks curated an exhibition with the work of local artists. We gave them the piece, they chose the frame.

This is the piece I submitted - the raw image on the left and my edited final version on the right. It is printed on sanded zinc and coated with a wee bit of sparkle. It is so shimmery and pretty...

The show is still on at the Bermuda Society of Arts in the City Hall.

There are some fabulous pieces, so if you do get a chance, pop by and have a peek...

Sunday, 5 January 2014

"The Fruit of Time and Tide"

I am over the moon!!! My pear has won the 2013 Charman Prize People's Choice Award!

Creating this pear was a true labour of love. For weeks my mother and I trekked up and down the horribly steep hill to the beach with arms full of cedar, bay grape and casuarina driftwood. Then, we spread out the hundreds of pieces and began. I had an image in my head and slowly, it became a reality. I carefully selected each twisted branch and one by one found their perfect place. It was a bit like assembling a jigsaw puzzle - many pieces found their rightful place incredibly quickly, others were a little more resistant, and some did not want to play at all and I returned them to the pile on the ground. My mother is the power tool expert so she helped me drill the holes and screw the pieces in place. Just under three months later I decided that it was finished. That decision might also have been reached as my Wabi Sabi exhibition was due to open just ten days later and I still had a few other canvases that were yet to be finished.

I had originally prepared another piece for the Charman Prize, but at the last minute decided to enter The Fruit of Time and Tide instead.

So thank you so much to everyone for your kind words, your encouragement and for voting for me!

Thursday, 2 January 2014

Happy New Year!

This year seems to have flown by in a fabulous frenzy and it is only now, as I look through all of these images, that I really remember it all...

I photographed 36 weddings in 2013. Capturing the thousands of kisses and cuddles has brought me immense joy. I really am a sucker for all those girly details; the lace, the tulle, the flowers, the sparkles, the candlelight and of course the love! It is really the love that makes me oh so happy.

I also had 102 portrait sessions. From bellies to babies and toddlers to teens, their laughter and tenderness has been such a pleasure to photograph.

I am so grateful to have had a truly incredible year creating images that I hope each family will treasure.

A little over a year ago, I started helping Nikki with Petals. I absolutely love flowers, so we made a deal - I'd build her new website and blog and each week photograph the flowers that have just arrived. In exchange, I can have flowers. What a heavenly exchange! Nikki writes so beautifully and sometimes her words brought me to tears. If you have not seen it already, you really should check out the Petals blog... Then in April, Nikki opened a shop. We worked together tirelessly to create a beautiful, organic space that would highlight the beauty of the blooms. And at the front is a little gallery space featuring vases, scented candles and other flower goodies - and my artwork. The metallic pieces mostly, as the light through the large window makes them shimmer.

In August 2012, Masterworks Museum asked if I'd like to have an exhibition the following year. I began working a month later and on the 27th of June 43 pieces were installed in the gallery. Creating each piece was a true labour of love. The canvases were textured then let to dry. Then brushed with an adhesive which needs precisely 30 minutes before the silver or gold leaf can be applied. I had no idea how difficult working with the leaf would be. It is virtually weightless, defies gravity and almost every sheet tears. Fortunately, I wanted randomness in the work. So the tiny tears and gaps between the sheets made each piece more interesting. The photographs were then printed on a flat-bed printer and finally two or three coats of a uv coating was applied to seal and protect the work. Only six pieces remain from the show, but 52 new canvases arrived a few weeks ago. I am working on a few new pieces and would be happy to do commissions if anyone has anything specific in mind.

Here is a link to the blog post on the exhibition - Wabi Sabi.

When Instagram arrived I was immediately enamoured. Sadly, I was unable to install the app on my phone and I have a policy that I do not get new phones until the current one dies. All my previous phones have met sad deaths - one fell into the sea, one jumped from my grasp, flew down a spiral staircase and shattered at the bottom. My iphone 3 however seemed to last an eternity and even following several serious falls continued to defy death. So I broke down in September and bought a new phone. I was off to New York, London and Paris and felt this need to capture them all in square. And oh how happy I am that I did. In those two weeks I shot 701 photos with the phone and 809 with my camera. Instagram is wonderful and I really do love the square format. It is funny though, I seem to spend far longer composing shots with the phone than I do with my camera. I think it is because the lens is so wide. Here is a link to my Instagram feed - instagram.com/eikonagallery.

And finally... Lumiere...

I have been photographing women for almost 25 years. I started with my friends in university, when they got bored I reluctantly turned the camera upon myself. This enabled me to experiment and to play with light. And being a little vain, I learned how truly important light is. That light is everything, it is the only thing that matters in a photograph. When I was living in London, I shot many self portraits. Reflections in windows mostly, but as I was starting this blog, I decided that I needed a photo that actually showed my face. The flat had huge windows and although it was a grey day, there was beautiful silvery light flooding in. Someone wrote me a comment about the photo saying that I had become a master of Photoshop. "No", I replied, "A master of light."

I have developed a special portrait session called Lumiere. The photos above are from four Lumiere sessions that I photographed in 2013. I am hoping to shoot many more this year, so I am pleased to offer a $75 gift towards Lumiere sessions until 15 March.

If you have not yet seen it, here is a little movie about Lumiere...

Over the past three months, I have been watching hour after hour of workshops by all sorts of incredibly talented photographers. I have learned so much, have a fire in my belly and I am bursting to create! This is going to be an amazing year...

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

xoxo

Monday, 15 July 2013

A Fly on the Wall

My exhibition at Masterworks closes on Wednesday. It has been up for three weeks and the kind words that I have received about the work have really touched and inspired me. So thank you so much for your support.

Here are a few photos from the opening; I would have loved to be a fly on the wall know what people were saying about the work.

And, as many of you mentioned that you were unable to make the opening and have been struggling to get to the gallery during the day, Masterworks has kindly agreed to stay open late on Tuesday. I am having a closing party tomorrow evening from 4-6:30pm, so if you can stop by, I'd love to know what you think...

Sunday, 7 July 2013

Wabi Sabi

My first solo show at Masterworks opened on the 27th of June. After labouring for almost a year, it really was wonderful to finally see all the work hung together.

The exhibition runs through 17 July. I do hope you'll get a chance to stop by; they really do shimmer in real life. And if you'd like to chat about the work, I plan to be in the gallery on Tuesday the 9th from 12-2pm and Wednesday the 17th from 3-4pm.

Below are a couple shots from the gallery and photos of each of the pieces. And to give you a little more detail and background, here and here are links to my last two blog posts on the show...