C&T Publications Eye on Fine Art Photography - August 2014 | Page 10

1st Place Winner:
Joan Carroll – Texas and Pacific Building

My twin loves of photography and travel emerged early in life. I remember being enchanted by
rare trips to an airport to meet an arriving flight, and equally enchanted by a train trip on the
California Zephyr from Denver to Salt Lake City. Clearly, I wanted to go places! On these trips I
had my trusty Kodak Instamatic camera, with those funky flash cubes! But almost as soon as I
could, I was out traveling on my own! Luckily this coincided with an interest in 35 mm
photography which I learned on my own and from friends. I can remember taking dozens of
rolls of film on every trip...black and white and color in every ISO I thought I'd need! Fast
forward to 2008 after multiple academic degrees and a couple of careers...I found myself at the
Beijing Summer Olympics. Two very memorable things occurred on that trip. The first was that
a random picture taken of me showed a woman who was bursting with happiness. I was actually
shocked when I first saw the picture for I had never seen myself look so happy....and I had just
been laid off from my job! That had to mean something. The second was the amazingly
inspirational nature of some of the sights that I encountered along the way in Beijing, Chengdu,
and Shanghai (China) and Lhasa (Tibet). My love of photography reemerged and I decided to devote my time and energy to it. While
I was first introduced to photography through landscapes, I began to find my niche in architectural photography, finding inspiration
in urban scenes and urban architecture. In my hometown of Fort Worth TX, I have explored our historical, endangered, and modern
architecture. Farther afield, I have come to love the amazing historical county courthouses of Texas as well as other iconic Texas
landmarks. From across the US, you will discover in my portfolio my love of lighthouses! And from around the world you will
discover in my works some of the wonders, large and small, from places such as Alaska, Colorado, California, Rhode Island,
Wisconsin, New Jersey, Washington DC, Florida, the Canadian Arctic, Fort Worth, China, Tibet, Australia, New Zealand,
Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Brussels, Berlin, Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, Istanbul, London, Prague, Rome, Vienna, and Spain. I would be
honored if you would browse through my portfolio! FAA: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/joan-carroll.html

Water Gardens Active Pool © Joan Carroll. http://fineartamerica.com/featured/water-gardens-active-pool-joan-carroll.html

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