Deanna Witman is a fine art photographer living and working on the coast of Maine. She holds a M.F.A in Photography from Maine Media College and a B.S. Degree in Environmental Biology from Kutztown University.
Trained as both artist and scientist, she searches for metaphysical understanding and meaning amongst the rocks and trees. Through her own dictionary of myth and metaphor, she takes us into a realm which is at once both ephemeral and memorial. Timeless, in bared skin, primordial- she hopes the camera captures a glimpse of the soul.
She chooses to work with the pinhole camera because of it's capacity to capture time as she sees it, or more specifically how she experiences it, with its inherent dualities. The exposures range from a mere second to many minutes- both equally valid of what a moment can be. Moving the shim across the pinhole to allow the light in, for the moment to record on the film has become ritual. Metamorphosis is a frequent consequence of the temporal aspect of her process, slowly unexpected forms emerge, un/becoming- figures in the work suggest ephemeral states and exists within primordial realms.
The photographs are obsessively sought and exist privately in the longing to communicate intrinsic thoughts and experiences. A measure of existence, a rhythm with the Earth's breath, a communion with the crust of dead leaves and soil that give life and shape to her imagination and being.
These images were created in camera with one negative exposed using a large format pinhole camera. The images are hand printed in sliver halide on fiber paper and toned. Ten prints are made from each negative. All images are untitled, accompanied by the year the corresponding negative was created.
Deanna teaches photography at Maine Media Workshops, Rockport, Maine, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and Project Basho, Philadelphia. Her work has been published and exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in many private collections.