WESTON, Conn. — Karen Kallins is a Weston artist of one of the newer art forms, photography. Her love of shooting goes all the way back second grade, where she started taking snapshots.
In college, she learned how to develop film in a darkroom. She now focuses on digital photography. Her current series focuses on immiscible substances, like oil and water.
“My goal is to have the viewer wonder what they are looking at and to spark their imagination,” said Kallins, who is passionate about capturing subjects in unusual ways; non-traditional angles, vantage points, and strong shapes and colors.
Immiscible, Kallins’s macro series, explores oil and water in stunning colors. Macro photography is the art of capturing small objects and making them larger than life, like an extreme close-up. Her pieces are filled with bold colors. The oil bubbles not only grasp and bend the colors, they really bring them to life.
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“I like the challenge of creating something that surprises my viewers. I love the expressions on the viewer's face when they are trying to figure out what the photograph is or means. It is fun to make my photos somewhat abstract,” said Kallins. “While I was experimenting, I noticed that some of the oil drops reflected shapes in the underlying background, so I began using backgrounds with shapes such as music notes, eyeballs, hearts. I also altered the oil drops using a straw or toothpick to create more interesting shapes in addition to circles.”
Kallins had two solo shows last year. She has been in five juried shows, including The Fairfield Museum’s 15th annual Images juried photography show. She has also shown in 17 group shows, including shows with the Weston Library Photography Club, and the Stamford Photography Club.
She will be showing her Immiscible series in a collaborative show at the Weston Public Library March 31; you can also catch the show at the Westport Book Shop.
Starting April 1, you can see more of her work at Water, held at the Weston Public Library.
You can see more of Kallins’s work on her website or Instagram. You can contact her via email at karenkallinsphotography@gmail.com.
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Ashley RK Smith is an assignment desk editor at FOX61 News. She can be reached at asmith@fox61.com
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