Kristopher Voronin / Sun Star
UAF student Kathryn Reichert left for Fort Collins, Colo. last week to showcase her photo “How My Son Sees It” at the Center of Fine Art Photography (CFAP). Reichert submitted images for a call for entry through CFAP and made it into the “Memories, Stories and
This photo is featured on Reichert’s business cards. The majority of her set is created with paper and shot in her home. Photo Courtesy of Kathryn Reichert/
Histories” gallery which debuted Friday, Nov. 6.
Reichert received her first digital camera (a Nikon D5100) in 2012 for Christmas from her husband. Apart from her gift, she had never owned a camera other than the occasional disposable. She didn’t give her Nikon much use till her first formal photography class, Basic Digital Photography, at UAF this past summer 2015 with Jason Lazarus. Before Lazarus’s class, she was getting what she considered to be decent photographs, but she wanted to begin to delve further into photography as an art form.
“I wanted to make them spectacular,” Reichert said. “Even more than that, I wanted to know what made them spectacular-the technical side of how to make my camera perform optimally really interested me.”
Reichert’s work focuses a lot on suspending reality. She says enjoys creating the world seen through her child’s eyes. Lately she has been working on a series of work photographing her children’s toys. She has used everything from dragons to polar bears and tigers and brings them to life with elaborate sets and lighting she creates in her own home. Capturing these scenes along with intimate moments with her children is very important to her, she says.
“Childhood is such an amazing time,” Reichert said. “They are so free and imaginative that I thought it would be wonderful to capture that intangible thing and show them when they got older this is how they were and the way they played.”
Reichert’s photo, “Through my Son’s Eyes” hanging in the “Memories, Stories and Histories” gallery, was originally completed for her basic digital photography class as a part of a depth of field assignment. The photo was created with ice cubes, flour and her son’s plastic toy polar bear and was illuminated using a backlit LED light submerged in water and then further diffused by a transparent sheet of scrapbook paper.
Reichert described her experience seeing her photo displayed in the entrance of the gallery as surreal. Her photo was displayed right under the exhibit title ushering patrons into the gallery.
“I would kind of peek over at it every now and again while I was talking to other people around the gallery,” Reichert said. “It was always such an exciting feeling to see other photographers or patrons discussing it.”
Reichert plans to finish her toy series, and apply for more calls for entries. She hopes to continue to get the opportunity to show her work. Although she will still work with miniatures and composites, she would like to push herself into other genres of photography.
“I think the biggest, most satisfying changes happen when you really push through the tough stuff that doesn’t necessarily resonate with you at first,” Reichert said.