Angela whitworth
My eighth grade year, I chose photography as an elective. As a troubled teen living in Wichita, Kansas, photography class gave me the feeling of freedom. Our assignments were to roam the halls in search of beauty on campus to photograph. This was how my lifelong love affair with the camera began.
In my 20’s, I was liberated from Wichita, and took a one way ticket to Los Angeles. I attempted a short career in front of the camera, only to yearn to be behind it. I then began taking photography and film classes at Santa Monica College. I was able to explore my imagination and develop concepts to shoot. I showcased the streets of L.A. as backdrops for models, and would often times build sets in the living room of my West Hollywood apartment. I enjoy dressing my models in my own clothes, and won't hesitate to apply makeup or style their hair as if they were my own dolls.
At the height of Covid, I escaped the madness in Los Angeles and relocated to Santa Barbara wine country. I wasn’t working, and was suffering from immense anxiety, like everyone else, due to the unknown future. I had moved into a house that was one of four units surrounding a swimming pool that had been converted into a garden. It was filled with giant sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds, and many other plant varieties. It was an alternate universe that felt comforting, compared to the digital world I was accustomed to.
Amongst the plants were a variety of insects, some of which I was encountering for the first time. I felt the urge to explore this other world, so I grabbed my camera and began photographing. I had learned about Georgia O’Keefe’s flower paintings in my first Art History class, and always had a desire to create something similar. With the use of my camera, I was able to shoot macro and focus on the fascinating textures of flowers. I was also able to view insects in ways that I had never seen before. This is when I became enamored by bees. These tiny flying insects that I was once deathly afraid of, and had been stung by multiple times in my life, were suddenly softening my soul. The furriness of their bodies, the way their adorable faces would get covered in pollen, and how they would often times fall asleep in flowers, was so endearing to me that I developed an infatuation with photographing them.
My art reflects the environment in which I surround myself with, whether it’s dolling up a model and photographing them on the gritty streets off Melrose or capturing an image of a furry bee collecting pollen from a flower in the countryside. I am drawn to vivid colors, as I believe each color evokes a different emotion. I embrace this, as I believe we seek art to make us feel, and as we feel art, we become emotionally connected to each other. My art will continue to transform throughout my life. Life is an ever evolving canvas and an artist’s work is never finished.
- Angie