Holly Gordon paints with her camera. The world is her studio and the digital darkroom sometimes takes her vision far beyond photography, as we know it. Although she stopped painting 20 years ago, her brush and lens are reunited.
Her origins date back to film photography in the 1960's and the aura and aromas of the traditional wet-darkroom. While most people viewing Holly's current work think she is a painter, in reality it is her photography in transition. Technology is changing photography as we know it her art is part of the change.
Photo-Liminalism, her name ascribed to this innovative work, that has been solidified after nearly 20 years of creative exploration. She is now part of a 21st century artistic and social movement called techspressionism and more can be seen at https://techspressionism.com.
Her book, Parallel Perspectives--The Brush/Lens Collaboration with well-known Northport watercolorist, Ward Hooper, links painting with a brush to creative expression with a camera was launched world-wide by Simon and Schuster in 2020 and has generated wide interest in the arts community and media, with her work appearing in the New York Times and Newsday.
Inspired by this collaboration, in 2018 the Islip Arts Council invited Holly to curate the 2019 Open Call entitled The Art of Collaboration that was so successful, she was invited to curate the first AARP-sponsored Open Call Art at 50 Plus at the Islip Art Museum and has curated the award-winning 2020 and 2021 AARP-sponsored virtual exhibitions as well.
Holly has established her reputation as both a fine art and documentary photographer creating break-through work in creative fine art photography and nature photography where she has the captured environmentally important essence of the Galapagos Islands, Antarctica and China. As an art teacher with some 30 years of experience these photography essays have gained visibility in museums, galleries, schools and libraries.
She is an artist who believes in engaging in important social issues and in blazing creative trails. Her ability to articulate her creative process as well as engage and inspire others, makes her is an indispensable advocate for the arts.
Holly's work has been exhibited widely--the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Denise Bibro Fine Art in Chelsea, Manhattan, The New York Hall of Science, The Heckscher Art Museum, Long Island Museum, Islip Art Museum, The Audubon Center, Greenwich, CT—to name a few.
Her art has appeared in The New York Times, Shutterbug Magazine, National Wildlife Magazine and New York Newsday.
In 2009 National Wildlife Magazine selected her Adelie penguin on a chunk of ice, photographed in Antarctica in 1999, to become the first photograph for their new global warming category and Molloy College, Rockville Center, LI has recently acquired both her Antarctica and Galapagos bodies of work. Her art is in public and private collections and a large selection is available at the Islip Arts Council Satellite Gallery in the South Shore Westfield Mall.
Insightful interviews with Holly have been broadcast on Long Island PBS Channel 21, Fios TV and on radio with Bonnie Grice.
A second book is in progress.
Published Works:
Parallel Perspectives: The Brush/Lens Collaboration
The eye-arresting images in this original contemporary art book feature two popular mediums, painting and photography. Although the art is inspired by the Long Island landscape, its visual appeal in artists' interpretations of locations is universal.
Paired with the dialog of two artists--Holly Gordon, photographer from Bay Shore, Long Island, and Ward Hooper, painter from Northport, Long Island--the narrative becomes an intimate conversation with the reader. Combining life, loss, serendipity and art, it portrays two artists, whose conceptually similar work evolved independently until social media brought them together. Their collaboration continues to produce treasures of stunning, memorable beauty.