Artist Statement

Yellowstone at daybreak is a magical place as cool air gives body to the mists billowing from hot springs. I catch my breath with delight as the morning light gilds the looming rock columns ahead. I approach the cliff and reach out to touch its face. It is hard and cool from the night air, and I envision when it was the opposite, red-hot magma. I appreciate that I’m touching but a moment in time, one point in this valley’s epic history.

Geological time is deep and complex, the accumulation of the changes produced by daily, dynamic forces at the junctions of fluid earth, solid earth, and biosphere. To help convey the astonishing geologic evolution underlying seemingly common landscapes, I harness the textures, tonality and timelessness of classic black and white images. In introducing elements of abstraction, I try to ease a scene from its specific location, inviting others to marvel with me at the “ordinary” in our remarkable natural world. Although the landscape has been my primary inspiration. I have taken my interest in details of the ordinary to botany, and I am working on a second portfolio. I am photographing plant material from my garden for a series of botanical portraits. The dramatic lighting highlights the details of form and the subtle variation in tone. I will continue with this series in tandem with my landscape photography because I believe that they are complementary. Each strengthening the other.

Artist Bio

As a geologist and teacher, Vicki McKenna started taking photographs to illustrate concepts to her students. Soon she became intrigued by the challenge of creating engaging representations of a three-dimensional world in two dimensions. She photographs the natural landscape featuring the processes at the boundaries between air, water, rock, and life. She prints her images using a number of historic methods, but principally uses platinum/palladium processes.

After earning a PhD in Geological Sciences from Brown University and ALB in Natural Sciences from Harvard University, McKenna studied photography at the New England School of Photography and the Photography Atelier at the Griffin Museum. As a core member of Fountain Street gallery, McKenna had three two-person shows. She has had juried solo shows at the Firehouse Center for the Arts, Newburyport and the Newton Free Library, and has exhibited in group shows throughout New England and along the East Coast, including at the Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA, and the Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA. McKenna has taught a freshman seminar focused on photography at M.I.T., where she also photographed for student programs and events. McKenna works from Riverwandering Studio in Marlborough, MA.