American artist Henriette
Wyeth said,"I love the feeling of a body
under Dress, in a woman, man or child. Michelangelo sculptures...Why do
I have so many enthusiasms? Have I possibly room for them? I go absolutely
mad, I get tearful, my voice shakes, I almost die."
Often my work involves complex arrangements and painstaking traditional
techniques. Countless people have assured me that I really should be producing
my work with the aid of a computer. While I truly admire those people
with a talent for that way of working, my own joy in photography is what
I call the backstage work; meeting and interacting with interested and
interesting people, gathering and making props, reveling in the rich color
and hand of fine fabrics, makeup and costuming that transforms both the
attitude and the visage, the howls of laughter when something 'jest ain't
right!" and finally that gorgeous light...enveloping skin and radiating
from eyes.
The magic is in the making of the photograph. What a gift, that moment before the shutter is released and you realize that it has all come together, just as you first visualized it.
Words can barely relate the
joy of making artworks. What fun it is to
squeeze that saturated pigment onto the palette. Ah, the smell of it -
intoxicating, the serendipity of the colors mixed - delightful!
I like to be a mad scientist,
concocting formulas and who among us
doesn't love to play in water? I crank up the stereo and sing at the
top of my lungs - slide a few dance steps in while waiting for a print
in the fixing tray. That dim golden glow of my darkroom is perfect for
thinking deep thoughts and praying right out loud.
I thank the Lord for these
gifts and pray that you, the viewer, will be
inspired to celebrate your own gifts of the Spirit.
Nina Rizzo
