Willie Anne Wright

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Willie Anne Wright
Born1924 (age 100–101)
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Alma materCollege of William & Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University
Known forPhotography
Website willieannewright.com

Willie Anne Wright (born 1924) [1] is an American photographer best known for her colorful cibachrome and grayscale Pinhole Photography. [2]

Contents

Biography

Willie Anne Wright was born Willie Anna Boschen, in Richmond, Virginia. Her father was a musician and sometime-artist. [3]

She graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1945 with a BS in Psychology, and from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1964 with an MFA in Painting. [1] Wright notes that William & Mary fine arts professor Thomas Thorne was particularly influential to her as an undergraduate, both by providing access to art supplies during wartime and by selecting two of her watercolors to be exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in a 1944 exhibition. [4] She later studied at the Maine photographic workshops in Rockport, Maine and the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. [1]

She married John “Jack” Wright Jr. and had three children. [1]

Career

Wright began her artistic career as a painter, teaching art classes at the Jewish Community Center, and was influenced by one of her painting instructors, Theresa Pollak. [3] For a while, she experimented with printmaking. [3] By 1973, she began to focus more and more on photography. Inspired by her surroundings and personal life, her first works incorporated images of her family, friends, and Civil War reenactors. Well known for her use of the old technique of pinhole, she is also an exceptional master in lensless photography, solar printing, and photograms.

Some of her more well known works include her "Civil War Redux" series, which focuses on local Civil War reenactors whom she followed around for several years, her "Pregnant Women" series, which features pregnant friends of hers, and "The Swimmer" series, which features women lounging by poolsides or in pools. In 2023 the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibited a retrospective of her work entitled Willie Anne Wright: Artist and Alchemist. [5]

Technique

Wright first experimented with pinhole photography in 1985. For a class project she had to create and use a pinhole camera. She used Cibachrome paper for use in a sixteen by twenty inch pinhole camera. With color-correcting filters she created wide-angle color prints by placing the pinhole close to the film plane. Her images were whimsical with bright colors and a vignette border. [6]

Collections

Wright's work is held in the following public collections:

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wright, Willie Anne. VMFA Virginia Artist File. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA.
  2. ↑ "Forward & Back". magazine.wm.edu. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Kollatz Jr., Harry (2001). "2001 Pollak Prizes for Excellence in the Arts". Richmond Magazine. September 2001: 45–?.
  4. ↑ "Forward & Back".
  5. ↑ "Willie Anne Wright: Artist and Alchemist - Exhibitions". Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. June 7, 2023. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  6. ↑ Page, Stanley Ray. "The History Of Pinhole Photography And Its Applications In Education" (Document). Indiana University. ProQuest   303488041.
  7. 1 2 Ennulat, Christine (2001). "Exploring the Ineffable: Pinhold Photography Opens Windows to Another World". 64 Magazine. 2 (7 (September 2001)): 48–51.
  8. ↑ "Willie Anne Wright Photographs". The Mariner's Museum and Park. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  9. ↑ Collections, American Art. "Willie Anne Wright". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
  10. ↑ Smithson, Aline (November 13, 2015). "Willie Anne Wright: Direct Positive". LENSCRATCH. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  11. ↑ "Center for Communication Studies & Theatre". The Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. August 23, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Prospect of Light Images from Pinhole and Plastic Cameras". University of Maine Museum of Art. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  13. ↑ "UNH Art Galleries Exhibitions Focus on Capturing the Moment". University of New Hampshire. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  14. ↑ "Museum of Art Permanent Collection" (PDF). University of New Hampshire. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
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