Expressions Community 2025 photographer profiles:
- Janet Casey: Revealing Pathways
- Debbie Cipolletti: Coastal Photography as a Spiritual Practice
- Diane E. Collins: Serenity and Balance
- Michael Kerouac: Open and Shut: the Juxtaposition of Life on Cape Cod
- Mandy Marsh: A River Flows Through It
- Carsten Oblaender: Cape Cod Sceneries – Capturing Time and Fragility
- John Schiller: “What’s not said…”
- Marcia R. Smith: Skyscapes
- Natalie Souza: Impressions of Cleveland
- Pam Switzer: VISUAL TAPESTRY OF FAMILY HISTORY
Revealing Pathways
By Janet Casey
My Ambition: Using Stony Brook Audubon Sanctuary as my canvas, I reveal nature’s pathways, both figuratively and literally. In “Forest for the Trees,” an abstract of woods, I use Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) to bring out the aliveness of the forest with its blaze of autumn colors. (ICM is done by moving the camera up, down, sideways, or in a circle, while using a slow shutter speed.) But, in “Water’s Way,” I create a more realistic image, which best shows the persistent pathway of water through winter’s ice.
Personal Meaning: Stony Brook Camera Club, to which I belong, was founded 56 years ago on this Audubon Reserve, in Norfolk, Massachusetts. Close to my home, it has always been a beautiful place to visit. This year, it was a true sanctuary where I explored my creativity.
Coastal Photography as a Spiritual Practice
By Debbie Cipolletti
My Ambition: I created a collection of artistic imagery as I explored those invitations that stirred my heart’s deepest longings, deepened my awareness, and called me to turn aside to see in creative ways. I nurtured my own practice of prayer and meditation to make room for the Spirit to guide me in ways that expanded my
vision or “way of seeing” as an artist. A central focus of my work was to explore how my faith and spirituality shape my artistic imagery. While celebrating the beauty of coastal environments, I focused primarily on the elements of sea, sand, and sky. This project afforded me the opportunity to grow as an artist by becoming more intentional in my composition and crafting of imagery, while stressing the importance of learning how to print my images.
Personal Meaning: As a child, my family often visited my grandparents who resided on Cape Cod. As an adult, I continued to enjoy Cape Cod with my family, often vacationing in Dennis and Brewster. I recently moved to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, after my early retirement from ordained ministry was precipitated by health challenges. This represents a new chapter in my life, where I have time for travel and time to pursue my passion for photography, which inspires deep feelings of gratitude, strengthens my sense of resilience, and helps to facilitate healing/renewal. I was intentional in seeking to integrate my passion for photography with the inner spiritual life I cultivated as ordained clergy in the United Church of Christ, and a trained spiritual guide. I became more creative as an artist while embracing an attitude of curiosity, wonder, and the joy of discovery. My collection of dynamic and abstract coastal imagery was created from locations near and far from my home, including Cape Cod, Molokai, and Florida. Through a sense of spiritual mindfulness, I created a body of work that celebrates the practice of encountering the natural world as sacred space. For me, photography is a means for conveying and celebrating the presence of God while nurturing feelings of reverence, praise, wonder, majesty, serenity and renewal. I sought to celebrate the beauty and radiance of life. In the near future, I plan to publish a devotional journal that includes my imagery, along with Scripture, poems, prayers, mediations, and journalling prompts that invite spiritual connection and reflection.
Serenity and Balance
By Diane E. Collins
My Ambition: In this series of images, I explored the concepts of serenity and balance using water in its
various forms to express a sense of tranquility and equilibrium. Water is a symbolic element
conveying inspiration and renewal. I embraced this photographic journey with a sense of
openness, curiosity, and presence.
Personal Meaning: Years ago, I went through a very difficult time. In response to the pain and sadness I felt, I
began a path of healing through therapy, reflection, and a spiritual journey. Today that journey
still continues with the practice of meditation, mindfulness and Sho Shin – the beginner’s mind.
All of which helps me to find serenity and balance in my life. This photographic works reflects
the ongoing process of healing and self-discovery.
Open and Shut: the Juxtaposition of Life on Cape Cod
By Michael Kerouac
As a subset of those goals, I want to create a series of images that evoke emotion, memories or thought. I want my images to cause the viewer to pause and reflect. Most of all I want the images to be memorable; I want enduring images. Simply put, I want my images to evoke and endure.
“My ambition is to fulfill my ambitions. I have countless ideas for images and dozens of projects defined. But life seems to always get in the way. So being in a program like this enables me to start and finish a project”.
It’s also my hope that this project will serve as a baseline to unlock new capabilities that take my creativity to another level. I have been taking photos (or making images) since I was a young teenager. I have shot almost every genre of photography and experimented with many different camera brands, I still shoot film as well as digital and I shoot multiple formats including 35mm, medium format and large format. I have thousands of nice images. The types of images that get many compliments, win a few ribbons and obviously get the ultimate measure of success as a photographer; social media “likes”. This project is my attempt to go beyond that box we photographers live in today. I want to pull together decades of experience and use it to create something deeply meaningful to me. It might not even be the images themselves; it may be the journey that has the deepest meaning. If I can develop a sustainable process for future projects, that will go a long way towards enabling many other projects on my agenda.
A River Flows Through It
By Mandy Marsh
My Ambition: Western Massachusetts is home for me as many of my formative life experiences took place here. The sight of the Holyoke Range and the Connecticut River are touchstones telling me I’m home. These 2025 images found around the valley honor my love for it.
In this collection, I use black and white because it evokes a timeless quality that links my past and present. Memories of growing up on a dairy farm in Connecticut serve as a connection to the agriculture and long history of western Massachusetts.
Most of my working life was as a photojournalist in New England and Virginia. During the Covid years, I moved from documentary photography to the creative world of fine art photography.
Cape Cod Sceneries - Capturing Time and Fragility
By Carsten Oblaender
My Ambition: Photographs usually capture the obvious, moments frozen in time. It’s a false reality, as reality itself is ever changing, and our view of the world is shifting with perspective and time. Our visual memories are not sharp and well defined, they don’t store pristine images but rather fleeting moments – fuzzy, ever so slightly changing and fading. Memories as fragile as the world surrounding us.
I would like to recreate these memories with a photo series of Cape Cod landmarks and iconic sceneries, visualizing time, and briefness we usually can’t see in the blink of an eye or a snapshot with our camera. The final images will capture subtle shifts in perspective and progression, exposing constants and change, structure, motion, and fragility.
Personal Meaning: The Cape has a special meaning to me. My wife and I discovered this world in 1995 – on our honeymoon. At the time home for us was still Germany, little did we know that we would ever live here on the Cape. In 2000 a job opportunity came along, and we moved to Washington, D.C.. We grew our family there, spend summer vacations on the Cape. Then Covid hit. As so many others, we looked for an escape from city life. As empty nesters, and with a job that allowed me to work remotely it was not too difficult for us. We had fond memories of the Cape, the people, nature, the endless beaches. We found our dream place in Chatham and are grateful to be able to live here. Capturing the Cape with my camera has become a passion.
“What’s not said…”
By John Schiller
My Ambition: As an eclectic photographer, I’m drawn to a wide variety of imagery, including land- and waterscape for the gift of beauty before us, floral for the unique color, character, shape and detail, urbex for the stories they can tell, and travel for revealing the unique personality of each community. There are any number of techniques used across these types of photography, to draw the eye to the subject. But as in communication, sometimes it’s what’s not said that matters. In photography, this is negative space.
Negative space is generally open space drawing your eye to the subject and helping to create a sense of balance in the composition. It allows the viewer’s eye to focus on the subject without distractions, enhancing the overall impact of the image. Negative space is an active participant in a photographic composition – more than just a quiet background. It can set a tone, create emotion and establish the atmosphere in the image. Negative space can also become the dominant component of the image, swapping roles with the subject.
My ambition is to build a collection of images that explores the role of negative space in a variety of photographic situations and to examine how this space is impacted by light, color, detail and texture, in turn impacting the story and emotion as told by the image.
Personal Meaning: During a recent trip to South Africa, I would challenge myself to fill the lens with each subject I encountered – – whether animal, human or object. While I loved the detail of an intense, “in your face” close-up, I found I was also drawn to images of wide-open spaces – like the savannah counterbalanced with a few distant animals or unique vegetation breaking the horizon line off in the distance. Sometimes
considered minimalistic, the stories these images told were quite different from a close up of the next lion or elephant dominating my lens. For example, the savannah was both the open space drawing you to the distant subjects as well as an integral part of the story itself.
Inspired by this view, I thought about other images I have crafted – photographs where negative space played an important part of the story. I also considered the character of the negative space – how it’s impacted by light, color and detail and the absence of any of these – and how those characteristics could dramatically change the feel of an image and the story that was told.
Skyscapes
By Marcia R. Smith
My Ambition: I strive to create simple, strong images portraying the sky during a variety of weather conditions. These settings bring me comfort, solace, and wonder. I want to utilize minimalism, light and color to create memorable images. My settings will be both at my winter home of Cape Cod and my summer residence in Nelson, New Hampshire.
Personal Meaning: The sky has always fascinated me. I grew up in Marblehead and relished watching storms come over the harbor. No weather was bad weather. In college I discovered the artist William Turner and marveled at his wide, expansive skies. I also loved the color and movement of Impressionistic art. Later on I discovered the simplicity and beauty of Japanese flower arrangement, Ikebana. My photography draws on all three of these influences.
Instagram: @marciareadsmith Facebook: Marcia Read Smith
Impressions of Cleveland
By Natalie Souza
My Ambition: Over the past year, I created a collection of images using a range of creative photographic techniques, guided by a single purpose: to see Cleveland with new eyes. As the work unfolded, I found myself moving beyond geography, architecture and weather, and instead capturing the moods, rhythms, and moments that shape life here. Impressions of Cleveland became not only a way to share the spirit of this great city by the lake, but also a way for me to deepen my own connection to it—revealing layers of character and beauty that are often overlooked.
Personal Meaning: Coming from a different continent and country, my family eventually settled here in Cleveland, Ohio. Having visited many countries and immersed myself in diverse cultures, I initially struggled to connect with Cleveland. It is not a city known for grand architectural marvels, nor is its landscape vast or dramatic. My connection began with people – we found friends, built relationships, and bought a house. Yet, when it came to my passion for photographing landscapes, I found myself drawn to traveling across our beautiful country and abroad, seeking inspiration elsewhere.
It wasn’t until recently, after learning a new technique for photographing the sea and waves, that I decided to try it along the shores of Lake Erie. To my astonishment, I discovered that our lake can be just as unpredictable and photogenic as the ocean on the East Coast. This realization opened my eyes to the unique beauty of this place we now call home.
Through this journey, my vision for seeing Cleveland has evolved. It is no longer about grand sights or dramatic vistas but about capturing the impressions of this land – the essence of a place where we connect with people and nature as we are. Cleveland, with its quiet strength and subtle beauty, is a city I now see with pride – a place to call home, worthy of celebration through my lens.
VISUAL TAPESTRY OF FAMILY HISTORY
By Pam Switzer
My Ambition: My intention is to weave a tapestry of visual images with an artistic and creative way to reveal the family history and be a beacon of light to the lives and souls of my ancestors.
Weave a tapestry of visual images with an artistic and creative way to reveal the family history and be a beacon of light to the lives and souls of my ancestors. I will utilize my personal photographs (as well as old family photos and historical photos) to intertwine the journey of family members lives, hopefully, capture
their spirit, pay tribute to cultural traditions and evoke emotional connection to each life story. This project will provide me with a visual storytelling opportunity with my photography, to bring breathe and life into faded photographs of yesterday year into a creative way to reflect and showcase my descendants. I want to illustrate their resilience and transport the viewer to a different time and era in order to have a poignant impact.
Personal Meaning: My journey into genealogy and photography started young when my mother had
researched family folklore and documented family history. When I was 18, my mother and I travelled together to England to visit an ‘old manor house’ said to be part of our family story. It was my first trip overseas and many years later it was verified the “old manor house’ was NOT part of our history. My father on the other hand did not know his family history, grew up on a farm, joined the Navy and became a Naval photographer for 20 years. His Naval career involved photographing Naval operations, visual stories of the Navy which were published (i.e. media events, visual diary of the Navy’s Mothball fleet, National Geographic, etc.), and intelligence missions. While assigned in Washington DC, at the Pentagon, he was the Chief Photographer documenting presidential events, joint operations with other military services, portraits of federal executives, etc.. After he retired from the Navy, he worked for the State Department with his expertise in photography and media (i.e. Voice of America, etc.).
As I child, I always remember him with a camera around his neck during family events and in his hands. My love of travel, photography and genealogy is inherited from my parents and so my voyage begins to visually capture and document my family heritage.
