Blog — Andrea Dawson

In the middle of a pandemic, I was fortunate to be able to go to the Cleveland Museum of Art ( safely masked, socially distanced, and by appointment only) to view the photographic exhibit “Proof”. It was an outstanding display of the work done by many famous photographers back in the day when the final image began with a contact sheet. I was drawn to the section of the exhibit called “Arrays” . The definition of an array is “an ordered series or arrangement” or “an impressive display or range of a particular type of thing”. I began to think about my own photographic work and style, where I am often drawn to patterns in nature. Although it seems that nature is often disordered or tending towards chaos ( as evidenced by our experience in the past year), I like to believe that there is order through repetition in the patterns in nature. I have been exploring creating arrays from my nature photographs to highlight the order in nature’s patterns.

One of my favorite childhood memories is of eagerly anticipating the first snowfall. I grew up in a small town in Wyoming where the winters are long and bitterly cold. From the time of the first snow, until often late winter/early spring the roads were covered in ice and snow. Even though it was often bitter cold, we would venture out under bright blue skies with our sleds, skis and skates going up and down the town hills. I definitely do not appreciate the cold and the length of the long grey winters we have in Northeast Ohio where I have lived for the past 22 years (I miss those bright blue skies!). However, I do find there is something magical about that first snowfall. Now instead of venturing out with my sled or skis I pull on my boots, hat and grab my camera to try to capture the wonder of snow.