When Danny Conant decided to retire after 10 years of teaching, she said it was one of the hardest decisions she's ever had to make but that it was a necessary one if she was to fulfill her dreams.
"At first I just sort of crept into photography." Conant said. "Then I realized it was my calling."
A Torpedo Factory member for 15 years, Conant specializes in photographing figures and then applying alternative processes to produce her final images. Conant’s show, “Locomotion: View from My Train Window” features new works of pigment prints using Ultrachrome inks printed on metal sheets.
The resulting photographs featured in "Locomotion" offer a streamlined yet romantic view of the industrial landscape. “I was riding the train up to New York when suddenly I saw all of this color and form and it was a revelation to me.” Conant said, “The end result took three separate train rides.”
Fellow artist Christine Bernstein said of her friend Conant, “As always, Danny’s work is unique, creative and on the forefront of photographic printing.”
THE TORPEDO Factory’s Multiple Exposures Gallery hosted an artist reception last weekend featuring new works by Conant and fellow photographer Roberto Kamide. Both artists focus on manipulating their works to evoke a surreal and fantastical element to their photography.
In addition to being at the Torpedo Factory for the past two years, Kamide was recently named a new teacher at Photoworks, a community resource for photographers in Glen Echo Park, Md.
"The challenge of photography is to not only be original, but to create something appealing," Kamide said, "However it's the creative process that makes it all worthwhile."
Combining photography of nature with original haiku, Kamide wanted his newest works to focus on the duality of natural lines by using the hard composition of wood to frame the soft lines of flowers.
The results, displayed in the show “Forms Follow Flora,” gives the photographs of the flowers a softer, dream-like quality.
“Photographs can be almost too realistic. I enjoy the creative part of them, it can be more interesting.” Kamide said, “When I work with a photo I try and take the realism out of it, it becomes a balance between my interpretation of what art could be.”