MEET KATHLEEN CLEMONS - Get To Know Your Instructors!

Jun 20

Our Instructor team is made up of a bunch of talented photographers with a huge variety of skills, personalities and interests. Each one of our Instructors are passionate about photography and are all hands on deck when it comes to teaching their workshops. They spend countless hours getting to know you and understanding where in your photography journey you are.

But what about their journey? Read on as we take a dive into their worlds, and get to know your Instructors …

She needs no introduction around here! Kathleen Clemons is a world renowned Flower Portrait photographer and has been interviewed countless times within the industry. Her work is delicate, moving and distinctly her own, and we are grateful to have her as an integral member of our Gather team.

MEET KATHLEEN CLEMONS

Where in the world are you, and what can you see right now? I am on a peninsula on the coast of Maine, my current view is of two islands and lots of lobster boats.

When you are not busy photographing, what else might you be doing in your spare time? Gardening and spending time with my eight grandchildren.

Tell us one thing about you that often surprises people? I recently retired from a business I had for 42 years selling lobsters: https://wgme.com/news/local/brunswicks-lobster-ladies-retire-after-42-years

I am more known locally for this than for my photography. :)

What’s the first career you dreamed of having as a kid?

I always wanted to be a teacher.

Tell us a bit about your journey, your photographic style and what you love to photograph? I have always been involved in some type of art, from painting to pen and ink drawings to stencil design, batik and even macrame, but had not found my “thing” until I got serious about photography once my sons were a little older. I got my start by taking an online photography class, so I am a firm believer in this type of education. Taking that first class changed my life forever.

My favorite type of photography is selective focus, I like to dance on the edge of focus, getting as little as possible in focus yet still telling the story I want to tell about my subject. My favorite subject are portraits of flowers and of my grandchildren.

Whose work has influenced you most? I really don’t think anyone’s work has, I am driven to capture the world the way I see it.

Can you share your favourite photograph (that you created), and tell us some more about it? Oh I cannot choose one photograph, my favorite changes often and I have many. Sometimes what I see through the viewfinder takes my breath away. Here is one from last Summer that caused that type of reaction. It’s part of a series I am doing on Perfectly Imperfect flowers.

Photography is not always easy, right?! What do you find is your biggest struggle with it? I think my biggest struggle is keeping it fresh, capturing my subjects in new and different ways to continue my growth as a photographer and share what I see.

If you could take a photograph of anyone in the world (past or present, famous or not) who would it be? It would be my grandmother, Simonne, she was an amazing woman and I wish I had made portraits of her.