Penrhyn Cook
Penrhyn has been a photographer for the past fifteen years. Her early work was shot with film and processed as toned, silver gelatin prints. She now works digitally but utilizes little manipulation other than that which could be achieved in the darkroom. Her photography documents things that other people tend to overlook; the serendipitous moments that make life interesting: the presentation of contradictions, innocence and humor. Her family, personal history and ideology are an important part of her story telling. She loves children; dislikes confrontation: is continuously puzzled by acts of inhumanity. She believes in the contagiousness of laughter and the joy of music and art.
As an emerging photographer, she watched from afar, taking in the full palette of shapes and light but always with human figures as part of the image. While she has learned to move in closer, becoming more intimate with her subjects, the stories that her portfolio of Little People delight her and so the project continues. Penny frequently uses Celebrations and public spaces as her backdrop. She is looking for interactions that express the breadth of human emotions; wonder, loneliness, envy. Whatever the emotion, she wants the viewer to participate in the experience and create his or her own interpretation. Like human emotions, Eidelons can also be fleeting. She doesn’t set out to capture them, she just found them; here and there, wedged between the here and now; a rift between the dimensions.
Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibits including the Summer McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery, New Haven, CT, City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, CT, Shoreline Arts Alliance, Guilford, CT, Haviland Street Gallery, Norwalk, CT, Art Place at the Shoreline, New Haven, CT and Café George, New Haven, CT. Cook has self-published two books titled “Eidolon” and “Serendipity”. Her work is in many private collections