Ramona du Houx
Ramona du Houx uses the camera with a painter’s eye. She has exhibited internationally. In Japan she is represented by Gallery Storks of Tokyo.
The technique she discovered back in 1979 in New York uses movement to create a sense of wonder through colors, textures, memories, and the seasons. Everything within the viewfinder becomes more visibly interconnected, when objects merge with the motion of the camera, as the image, the “lightgraph,” is taken.
“Sometimes when people look deeply into these images, they relax and find a tranquil place in the soul, as one would by taking time to be at peace in nature. At other times, the photographs can refresh, excite, and energize one’s soul, as if one were standing by a waterfall. The images have been said to be dreamlike, healing, Zen meditative, and thought provoking.
“Through, Transformations, I hope to connect viewers with nature’s magic by revealing her complex balance.”
—Ramona du Houx
FULL ARTIST STATEMENT:
Many Native Americans continue to believe that everything and everyone is connected. It is that interconnectedness that helps to make us whole. Through photography I have found light expresses that reality in unique ways. I try to bring the beauty and mystery of nature to viewers by amplifying this essence. That mystery can be transformational.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote that you can’t step into the same river, twice. Today, most of us are too busy to contemplate how much nature’s motion surrounds or is within us, always changing. We don’t normally see how interconnected rhythms of nature are a part of us. Nowadays, too many of us tend to take nature’s continual dance of life for granted.
Scientists, innovators, and inventors throughout history took the time to observe nature and her connective rhythms. But now society plugs us into the Internet, and while that can open doors, sometimes too much of being Internet-connected disconnects us from the mysteries of the natural world that are transformational. I want to help show how nature’s interconnectedness can lead us to discoveries about our world and ourselves.
Sometimes when people look deeply into these images, they relax and find a tranquil place in the soul, as one would by taking time to be at peace in nature. At other times, the photographs can refresh, excite, and energize one’s soul, as if one were standing by a waterfall. The images have been said to be dreamlike, healing, Zen meditative, and thought provoking.
Through Transformations, I hope to connect viewers with nature’s magic by revealing her complex balance.
– Ramona du Houx
Ramona has been creating “lightgraphs” for over 35 years and is represented by Gallery Storks in Tokyo, Japan and Gallery Insights of Solon, Maine. And is a member of the Maine Artist Collective.
Please see more of her work on her website.
ABOUT RAMONA DU HOUX
Ramona uses the camera with a painter’s eye. The technique she discovered back in 1979, in New York, uses movement to create a sense of wonder through colors, textures, memories, and the seasons. Everything within the viewfinder becomes visibly interconnected when objects merge with the motion of the camera as the image, the “lightgraph,” is taken.
Ramona’s love for photography continues to be a lifetime affair. At twelve she couldn’t be seen without a camera. By eighteen she was teaching photography and industrial design at Collegio San Antonio Abad in Puerto Rico.
During college she worked with three New York City photographers who taught her more about black and white techniques and the business of photography. In 1979 she landed jobs to take political photographs of Senator Ted Kennedy, and President Jimmy Carter. The same year she discovered her lightgraph technique and held her first exhibit in Huntington, Long Island. Excited by the new way of expressing herself she took her lightgraph images to the Museum of Modern Art, where they were put on file.
The Zen nature of her work became obvious to Ramona so, with her college, she continued her studies in art, and philosophy in Kyoto, Japan while teaching. Her travels in the East led to numerous exhibits in Japan and a lifelong connection with the area.
In England and Ireland, she explored the mythology of the region, while raising three children, ghost writing a novel, and forever taking photographs. After returning stateside to Maine, she started a publishing company with her husband and was hired as a consultant by a local artist. During this time she also explored more about the mysteries of motion in her lightgraph technique, and wrote for newspapers. By 1998 she was given access to a color darkroom at the Lewiston Creative Photographic Art Center to print a backlog of work in exchange for advising the Center’s photography students. In 2005 Ramona started a newsmagazine, Maine Insights, which continues to this day. By 2012 she decided to show more of her fine art.
As a writer, she has published a young adult novel, a short story, various news features and articles, as well as three books of children’s poems. She was also contracted to put together a newspaper for a political organization and a blog for the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, while writing their newsletter.
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