In my last post, I wrote about creative play with intentional camera movement (ICM). I enjoyed all of the comments, emails and shared images that many of you sent in response. One, in particular, caught my eye and I wanted to share it with you. It has to do with both ICM and the concept of place, and there is a deeper story to tell, as well.
Autumn. Photo ©2022 Kristin V. Rehder
Kristin V. Rehder is a documentary photographer and writer who lives in Lancaster, Pa., and whose work is centered around the concept of place. She photographs primarily in the Lancaster County area and in the Adirondaks. We met at an art festival around eight years ago and I have enjoyed hearing from her from time to time and reading about her projects.
In 2019, Kristin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The quaking in her hands made it difficult to manage a camera, but when a friend introduced her to Qigong, she discovered a connection between the movement in her hands and the changeability of the natural world, and began to see her medical condition in a new light. She embraced the quaking of her hands and began making hand-held long exposures of the moving subjects in the catch basin behind her home—the sparkling water, foxtail grasses and tree leaves blowing in a light breeze, birds and more.
Cattails, Early Spring. ©2023 Kristin V. Rehder
Some embrace ICM with a sense of playfulness. For Kristin, it’s not so much a means of play as a serious endeavor. She says, “I have turned a disability into a possibility and a mounting sense of wonder.” The result is an exhibition called TREMOR: Reflections on the Nature of Parkinson’s, which is on display at the Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster through December 8 and will then travel to Endeavour Hall, St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, Va., for a four-month show beginning December 15. More than 20 photographs, which emerged from her daily walks through the catchment basin, are featured in the exhibition. In addition to an online catalog produced by the College, you can view a short video about Kristin’s project and visit her website.
A native of Wilmington, N.C., Kristin earned an M.A. in liberal studies with a focus on the cultural history of photography at Skidmore College and a postgraduate certificate in documentary arts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. In addition to exhibiting her various projects, Kristin’s photographs are included in several permanent collections and Mary Warner Marien’s fifth edition of Photography: A Cultural History.
Such an inspiring story and beautiful creative pieces. Love these.
I love this too. the photos are gorgeous. I would like to know how to do this -- kicking the tripod? thank you for sharing this.