ANNE O'CONNOR

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Born in Tasmania, a family person, social worker, artist and photographer Anne has her own affinity with the island state. She has travelled many places within Australia, living nine years in Darwin. To Anne, Tasmania is her home and her inspiration. Her work encapsulates a sensory response to nature and the seasons. Anne's images invoke a sense of rhythm providing continuance rather than closure. It is impressionistic in style promoting an essence of place rather than a recorded documentary. She is influenced by the natural world and is attracted by light, shade, relationships, colour, texture and form. Anne uses the camera as a tool to develop her art rather than a paintbrush. Her work is captured entirely in the camera on site with minimal modifications afterwards. She is mostly self-taught with knowledge gained through reading, experimenting, attending workshops and lectures by national and international photographers. Anne has had images accepted for inclusion with other photographers in National and International Exhibitions. On a number of occasions she has won awards for her work. ARTIST STATEMENT IMPRESSIONISTIC IMAGES These images are about portraying a tiny essence of place, a sensory perception of the natural environment. I like to believe that I have an affinity with nature, spiritualism, which to me is the backbone of my work and enables me to capture the magic that I see. I like to show the relationship between colours, light, shade, texture and form, creating a visual story with rhythm, emotion and life for others to share. Thinking about what I do reminds me of my experience of fishing. It is not the fish I caught which gave me the enjoyment, instead it was the affinity with the place and the silences and sounds of the environment I was in which held the attraction. I could sit for hours in the silence by myself as a child and young adult, hoping the fish wouldn't bite. If it did I would have to go through the motions of catching them and then cleaning them and this would interrupt what has taken me a long time to identify, my affinity with the environment, which I hold so special. Hence my images are not intended to be the fish, as others would see it; rather it is my intention to portray the environment in which the fish lives and if the fish happens to be in the picture at the time, so be it. My work is heavily influenced by the natural world and the imagery I see and the sounds I hear all around me. My great passion is trees, as far as shape and form are concerned. The ocean I love for its movement, its sound and mood. Light of course has the ability to amplify or change the colour of the environment, depending upon time of day and time of the year. The amount of or lack of light will bring out the textures within an image and has the ability to create a variety of patterns. The great photographer Galen Rowell, now deceased, also influenced me. He once said to me it is important to identify what first attracted you to an image and once you become aware of this, then look for the tiniest part of the whole and use this to tell the story. Freeman Patterson, another well-known photographer, also has had some influence on my work with his philosophy and affinity with the environment. Louise Mann, a photographer in Western Australia is perhaps my most recent influence and we have become friends with similar philosophies and style.