Pamela Viola

"For me, it's all about seeing, exercising my awareness and seeking the unseen. The beginning of a piece is very much based on instinct. The image capture is just a starting point, a blueprint for the finished work that I hope will spark my viewer's own imagination. I want to challenge the viewer to see the world in a new and different way."

The embellished landscape is an ongoing theme in Pamela Viola's body of work. Sometimes dark and haunting in tonality, the overarching simplicity of her compositions is intended to create a sense of peace and tranquility. Her most successful works are those that invoke a powerful silence and mysterious quality that rouse a viewer to imagine himself in the scene, creating their own narrative.

Pamela Viola's photographic technique has evolved from her work with Polaroid and other types of transfer printing. What is important is the introduction of a handmade quality to what would otherwise be a perfect and polished photographic image. Addition of textures, color shifts, and unique lighting all combine to create a heightened sense of drama.

Pamela Viola is a classically trained photographer. In high school she studied Ansel Adams's "zone system" method. Her training in painting and other mediums at Bennington College helped to round out her skills, which she now employs in her digital photographic and mixed-media work. She has recently participated in workshops with Henry Horenstein, Joe McNally, and other contemporary photographers.