Photographer:
Sandy Ross
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Just when director Carolyn Thow was organizing the Tewksbury estate into a community center, I chanced upon Whittmore. I was hunting for a local site where I might get almost lost observing nature. I'm a photographer, and I love making landscape images in newly discovered locations.
In this slightly sequestered, woodsy acreage, I found a little haven where I could spend time exploring for the unusual and the natural, looking for the light and the dark, focusing on the clear and the foggy. Outside. In all kinds of weather and in all four seasons. Alas, there were trails and clearings, and a variety of terrains and trees, and snags, and understory, and wildlife and birds, and random hikers - and a place to use the bathroom.
After an engaging conversation with the then-new director, Carolyn, who elaborated on some additional attribute, I was hooked. She described the music and dining events, art shows and classes, orienteering, yoga sessions, etc. We quickly determined that we shared mission values, particularly those in the motto, Community, Culture and Conservation - and that I might make a good in-house photographer! Since that happenstance 5 years ago, I have seen Whittemore grow into a unique center, providing fun, thoughtful activities, and a locale for this evolving center. Happily, we have been unfolding and flourishing together; I plan to continue documenting WCCC and enjoying its gifts into the next 5 years!
BIO:
Whittemore is happy to introduce Sandy Ross, our current staff photographer. Sandy came to Hunterdon County fewer than 10 years ago because of her love for (most) things rural in this part of New Jersey. With a Bachelor’s Degree in history from Rutgers University, a Masters Degree in Sustainable Landscape Design and Land Management from The Conway School, MA, and a slew of courses and workshops in fine art photography, Sandy combines her delight in and concern for the environment with her passion for landscape photography. She will be capturing images at many of our events as well as teaching courses in digital and iPhone landscape photography, with our wonderful surroundings as the setting.
RESIDENCIES & MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS:
2021 - The Hunterdon Art Tour: Group Show at WhittemoreCCC
2019 - Terra Incognito: Two Artists, One Passion - Trees