Photography

Happy International Women's Day /  by Heather Mull

Sometimes it's fun to raise a little ruckus in the street to create a photo.

Started in the early 1900's as a day for women to advocate for their needs, such as equal pay, voting rights, and shorter work hours, International Women's Day is now celebrated worldwide annually on March 8. 

Activists Athena Kazuhiro and Steph Flati, organizers of the Ladyfest 2015 Pittsburgh music festival, take it to the streets of Polish Hill in Pittsburgh for a portrait I made for the cover of Pittsburgh City Paper. To read the full archived story, go to: http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/under-a-new-name-ladyfest-returns-with-a-lineup-of-female-dominated-bands/Content?oid=1840286

I dug the above image out of my recent archives to share. It wasn't made for IWD, but it sends the same message. It was created as a preview image for a local music festival featuring rock bands with female lineups.  The same year, I also shot a local organization called "Girls Rock! Pittsburgh" that "an empowerment program for female youths of all definitions, abilities, & backgrounds. Our program utilizes the process of making music to instill tools for the amplification of self-confidence, creative expression, independent thinking, mutual respect, & cooperation while cultivating a supportive & inclusive community of peers and mentors." 

As a woman photographer, I cherish opportunities to work with other females, older or younger. It's so special to have a chance to celebrate and share them, their talents and their stories with the world and I feel a responsibility to make a photo that is respectful, not just superficially attractive. I mean, in certain of my work (headshots, professional portraits) I, of course, strive to have anyone putting their best face forward. But a person is so much more than their outward appearance and I think that good photographs tap into all the depth below that surface. At least, that's what I strive to create personally. 

I take this all pretty seriously. But sometimes, too, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIb6AZdTr-A ) And it's important to know that you can create work that accomplishes both. 

 

For more information on Girls Rock! Pittsburgh and some music, go to: https://girlsrockpittsburgh.bandcamp.com

Girls at the Kliptown Youth Program show off their handstands for me when I visited Soweto, South Africa, to teach a photography workshop in 2014 with the Kliptown Photography Project. To learn more about that project, go to: http://www.kliptownphotography.com

Soccer friends, Kliptown, South Africa. For more information on my time in Soweto, go to: http://www.kliptownphotography.com




Turneresque /  by Heather Mull

Locust Tree, Calvary Cemetery, Summer.

It stands to reason that the painter OF light should exert massive influence on those who paint WITH light.

While this site is under construction and I'm sifting through my own archives and reviewing my professional history so as to explain myself and my work (and by necessary extension, market myself and my work) to the world, I'd prefer to direct your attention to one of my many inspirations, the painter Joseph Mallord William Turner.

Born in 1775, before the advent of photography, Turner was known as "the painter OF light" and is considered a master of British landscape painting, in both watercolour and oil. His exceptional understanding of how light shapes form and the colors we see, especially in the later abstract seascape paintings I witnessed recently in the exhibition "J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free" at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, was a harbinger to both Expressionism and the entire scientific field of photography, which didn't come along until 1839, just twelve years before Turner's death.

It stands to reason that the painter OF light should exert massive influence on those who paint WITH light. So, if you're inclined, while I fumble my way through becoming web-savvy, please enjoy this brief intro to Turner's work via The National Gallery of London: 

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner