Editorial
Front Page - Friday, May 28, 2010
Local photographer captures personalities for a lifetime
Erica Tuggle
Elizabeth Adams has held a lifelong passion for photography, and has studied with Mary Allen Mark in New York City to improve her craft. She says each portrait she does is a timeless piece that will remain when the person of the photograph is gone.
- Photo provided
When Elizabeth Adams was 10 years old, she began creating images. She moved to the darkroom at age 15, and throughout school and after 17 years of work as a nurse, she maintained her love for photography until she could pursue it full time.
To begin her art, she took two years of fine art photography courses at the University of the South. It was there that she began to focus on the fine art photography and the timeless, classic look that she would later build her studio around. She studied in New York City from 2002 to 2005 with commercial photographers including Mary Allen Mark. It was then that her style began to emerge with mirroring of Richard Avedon and John Singer Sargent, whom she admired. All in all, her journey in photographic discovery was more akin to the life of an artist finding the medium their work will follow.
Adams believes very much that her photography is an art. She signs each photographic work she does and frames them on a simple white rag with a elegant black frame like one would see in a New York art gallery.
Adams says that with her portrait photography, she works to show relationships between those in the photo, because they are so important to her to highlight. She says she also appreciates the beauty in the moment each person she captures with her camera is sharing with her.
“We capture the most precious attributes of the person you love so much,” she says. “When you give a part of your self to a portrait, it is something you don’t forget. We capture the personality and create images that you will want to keep on the wall for a lifetime.”
When people visit her studio, located in a remodeled North Chattanooga home on Forest Ave., she says she works to make her clients feel welcome and at home.
“Our technique is just to work with person and capture who they are,” she says. “It’s about caring about people and what they want and need.”
This similar comforting approach is also used on the pet portraits Adams does, especially during the May Pet Portrait Month.
“Like people portraits, the pet ones look into their soul and create an impact,” she says.
She says because, realistically, pets don’t live that long, it is nice to remember a special pet that has provided unconditional love. She says the family and her discuss the backdrop they want for the pet and what poses will work for their personality, whether is be playful, whimsical or serious. She says several of her clients maintain a wall of portraits and build on them with each two- or four-legged addition to their family.
Yet, no matter who the portrait is for, when everything is said and done, it is the portrait that will be the thing to last and remember someone by, she says.
Adams also offers wedding photography, and with her location, it is a short walk to Coolidge Park or surrounding areas to create the wedding shots. With wedding photography, Adams says, it is more photojournalistic because she is capturing several emotions and the air of happiness and fun. She says since each wedding is unique and different, she likes to personalize the photos and the album they are presented in as well. Her studio also offers specials such as a birthday club and a baby plan where she follows a client’s child through the first few years of their life. Her studio provides business headshots and lifestyle photography as well.
Adams studio has raised between $4,000 and 6,000 dollars for different charities in the area. She says she works with several charities because she feels it is important to support the local community. Some of those she has worked with through silent auctions or similar fundraising are St. Nicholas School, the Make a Wish Foundation, the Creative Discovery Museum, GPS Visions, Chattanooga Room at the Inn, The Bright School and the American Lung Association. This summer, her studio is working with the Austin Hatcher Foundation.
Adams has local displays of her work at Bellies and Babies, Epic Optical, Monica’s, Epicurean Restaurant and the Cake Gallery, for whom she photographed the sign for the side of their delivery car.
Whether it is from the fairytale she is looking to shoot in wedding photography, showing
a snapshot of a child before they grow up, or showing a grandparent and grandchild in the same frame, she says it is hard to say how important the work she does is in providing a physical object to remember a day in the life of someone.
Appointments and more information on Elizabeth Adams studio can be found on Face-
book at Elizabeth Adams Photographic Artist or www.elizabethadams.com.
|
|