Photography Atelier

Musings

I am a musician at heart who has loved playing the piano since childhood. I also took up playing the guitar to “while away the time” during the prolonged periods of isolation and confinement created by the Pandemic.

Through my love of music and my own personal experiences as a musician, I used both my piano and guitar to help spark new ideas and creativity in my photography. As I embarked on my new mission of discovery, I wanted to explore the places that my instruments would take me. What feelings and insights would I convey through these muses, and more importantly, what would they convey to me?

When I started the project, I mentally reflected on the pieces of music that I was playing and how I could convey a sense of feeling or mood about them. I also tried to represent the musical sounds through a strictly visual medium. As the days passed and I struggled to express my feelings about the Pandemic, I became obsessed with the shapes of my instruments and used their reflective surfaces to help reveal my innermost thoughts in a more abstractual way.

Windows are a common theme in many of my “Musings” photographs. Their shapes conjure up a more cathedral-like atmosphere and impart feelings of isolation, fragility, beauty and reverence. Some of the window reflections even symbolize my dreams of escape. A portal through which I can travel into the outside world. Free to go about my business, free to see family and friends, and free of the virus, uncertainty, and fear.

During this project, it was hard for me not to contemplate how nebulous, fragile, and elusive my personal freedoms had become. I had never lived through such a time and needed an avenue to be able to express my innermost thoughts of despair, as well as my hopes for a brighter future and a quick return to normalcy.

Camille Neville was born and raised in coastal Massachusetts. She graduated with a degree in Business from Northeastern University and has worked for three decades, as a Web programmer in both the Medical and Banking industries. She also holds a degree and license in Radiologic Technology.

Camille became a serious photographer in the early 80’s after she received an Olympus OM2 camera as a birthday gift. She was soon bitten by the photography bug and became a literal sponge; Soaking up as much information as she could about the Fine Art of Photography and studying the techniques and styles of many Photographic Icons like Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Dorothea Lange.

To help further her knowledge, she studied Black & White Photography and Darkroom Development at the New England School of Photography. She also took numerous seminars and workshops over the years to improve her skills in Photojournalism, Landscape, Nature, and Macro Photography.

Although much of her past photographic work has been heavily influenced by her love of cultural New England, its beautiful seashores and flourishing fishing industry, Camille has recently developed an interest in self-expression, abstraction, and creative imagery.

For this type of work, she tries to draw on her own inner dialog and emotions, as well as her techniques and experience, as a watercolor artist. Preferring to create softer, more subtle abstract images that are open to a broader interpretation.

Camille has been a Chairman and member of the Duxbury Camera Club for many years and her images have been exhibited in over thirty juried shows throughout Massachusetts. Her works have also been featured in local newspapers and magazines, as well as two books. Seven of her photographs have won awards in Juried Exhibits from Boston to Cape Cod. She has also been honored with a “Five Year Master Award” in the Fine Art of Photography from the Plymouth Center for the Arts.