About Meredith Mason Garcia
In my previous life as a neurobiologist, I spent many hours taking black and white film photomicrographs of the brain – arguably the most beautiful and complex structure in the known universe. I retired from research and photomicroscopy in 2005, but my interest in photography continued. As I no longer had access to darkroom facilities, I moved into the world of digital photography, which I initially liked but eventually found somewhat limiting. In the fall of 2010, I decided to return to my first love, black and white film photography. Using this technique, I have looked at the real world in a different way – at reflections and shadows rather than the objects that create them, or at abstractions of larger objects, taking them out of their usual context and looking at them in a new way. I find this focus on composition to be intellectually as well as artistically rigorous, but still productive of aesthetically pleasing images. My work continues the tradition of Ansel Adams, Minor White, Ray Metzger, and Jan Gruber.
For film photography, I use a 35 mm Nikon F100 with a Nikkor 20 mm or 50 mm prime lens, a Pentax 645, or a vintage Rolleiflex 3.5 [the same model used by Robert Rauschenberg and Vivian Maier]. I have my own darkroom and print all of my photographs myself, using archival papers imported from Europe. From January 2011 through May 2013, I studied black and white film photography with the internationally known photographer Judith Vejvoda of Dixon, NM. My work has been exhibited in group shows in Taos, Penasco, Espanola, Abiquiu, and Albuquerque, NM, and New York City, and in one-woman shows in Pilar, El Prado, and Espanola, NM, and most recently at the Bareiss Gallery and Wilder Nightingale Fine Art in Taos.
For film photography, I use a 35 mm Nikon F100 with a Nikkor 20 mm or 50 mm prime lens, a Pentax 645, or a vintage Rolleiflex 3.5 [the same model used by Robert Rauschenberg and Vivian Maier]. I have my own darkroom and print all of my photographs myself, using archival papers imported from Europe. From January 2011 through May 2013, I studied black and white film photography with the internationally known photographer Judith Vejvoda of Dixon, NM. My work has been exhibited in group shows in Taos, Penasco, Espanola, Abiquiu, and Albuquerque, NM, and New York City, and in one-woman shows in Pilar, El Prado, and Espanola, NM, and most recently at the Bareiss Gallery and Wilder Nightingale Fine Art in Taos.
