Katherine Wardle
Dr. Katherine Wardle, resident of Rexford, NY, views her photography as a vehicle to capture beauty, merging her many adventures and interests. She enjoys revealing patterns in life, celebrating the richness and color of our world. Through her lens she encourages us to closely investigate the everyday elements by which we are surrounded. Her images reflect a diverse subject matter, including the details of a decadent Parisian pastry; the colorful graffiti on a Hanoi shop; the contrast of sun and shadow at dawn in Death Valley; the aging texture of brickwork at a Tuscan winery; and the costumes of a Venetian model. Even the hats on display at the New York City Easter Parade find themselves captured by Katherine’s camera.
Katherine has experienced numerous arts related endeavors that have helped to develop her appreciation for the aesthetic and her attention to detail. She has been a jewelry enamel artist executing gold chalices; a trumpeter with numerous college and community orchestras; the manager of the Print Laboratory of the Columbia University Journalism School (where she first experienced photographic darkroom work); a pastry apprentice at NYC’s renowned 4-Star Restaurant Daniel; an assistant cookbook editor; and an advanced scuba diver logging over 100 Caribbean deep water dives (many of which included underwater photography). While enjoying diving, her emphasis changed from chasing aquatic life to hanging in neutral buoyancy while photographically focusing on the micro life around her.
As a psychologist in private practice, Dr. Wardle learned to be attentive to the nuances of peoples' moods and body language as they shared their life stories. Noting and transforming our world internally and externally has fascinated her, and she believes that her clinical work in hypnosis has helped to foster her creativity in working with images as well as words.
While engaged as a pastry apprentice in NYC, Katherine started bringing in a point and shoot camera to work. She wanted to visually preserve the all too fleeting beauty of the products she found around her. She was struck by the creative energy of those with whom she worked, and was challenged by the attention to detail that was demanded. Later, as a chef and cooking school instructor (Cooking Therapy, Rexford, NY) she sought out food markets both domestically and internationally. She found her interests going beyond the excitement of the fresh produce. She wanted her photography to reflect her interpretation of the beauty of the surroundings, the stylistic displays and the colorful palettes she found in her travels.
Her award winning photography has been exhibited throghout the Capital Region including Albany Center Gallery; Mimosa Gallery (Saratoga Springs, NY); Art in the Park (Saratoga Springs, NY); The New York City Art Expo; The Photography Center of the Capital District (Troy, NY); The Arts Center of the Capital Region; the former Kismet Gallery (Troy, NY); the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library (Clifton Park, NY); the Chrysalis Spa (Troy, NY); and The Sand Lake Center for the Arts (Averill Park, NY). Her work is regularly exhibited at Morningside Gallery in Latham, NY, which is her personal choice for the framing of her work.
She credits her excitement for and education in photography in large part to the invaluable feedback of talented colleagues including Lawrence White (Freelance Photographer in Saratoga, NY); Sophie Pasquet (Founder, Better Paris Photos, Paris, France); Gavin Gough (Independent Freelance Photography commissioned by International NGO's and Founder of Bangkok Photo School); Kemel Nuraydin (Former Executive Editor of National Geographic Magazine's Turkish Edition and Founder of Istanbul Photo Workshops); Elizabeth Opalenik (Internationally known photographic artist and workshop conductor, Oakland, California).
Dr. Wardle expresses thanks to her tripod carrying spouse, Dr. Marvin Fine, and his willingness to perform all tasks supportive of photography—including trekking over sand dunes at dawn.
Special appreciation, however, is to go to talented photographer and instructor Katherine Wright, owner of YTK Works, without whose mentoring and enthusiastic support this photographic odyssey would never have taken place. She is a treasure to the photographic community and to Dr. Wardle personally as both a valuable friend and individual of rare selflessness and genius.
