Mark Muse cups a glass of wine, as he chats with friends and local art lovers at his exhibit in the Shepherdstown Public Library on Friday. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — After one week of delay, due to bad weather, the opening reception for Shepherdstown resident Mark Muse’s new photography exhibit was held in the Shepherdstown Public Library on Friday night.

The exhibit will be up in the library’s gallery through March 1.

“The turnout’s been great! A lot of people are familiar with Mark’s work and are happy to be able to come out. There were definitely a lot of people who were disappointed with the snow last week, so they were really happy that we were able to reschedule the opening reception,” said Shepherdstown Public Library Director Christy Hagerty. “Hopefully, people will want to buy, too. We get 30 percent of overall sales.”

According to Hagerty, Muse was the second and final artist selected to be featured in the library’s gallery by former director Hali Taylor.

“Most of the photography was framed from previous shows. I updated and replaced about 10 of them for this show,” Muse said, before glancing around at the full room of local art enthusiasts attending the reception. “I’m not surprised by how many people were here today, but I don’t know how many more people might have been here if this had been held last week.”

Art lovers chat at the Mark Muse exhibit’s opening reception in the Shepherdstown Public Library on Friday night. Tabitha Johnston

He said that most of the landscapes featured in the gallery exhibit were located in Jefferson County, Tucker County, Pocahontas County and Washington County, Md.

“There’s very little of analytical thinking in my work. It’s mostly from the heart. There’s nothing preconceived. When I see stuff that intrigues me in some way, I try to take a photograph of it,” Muse said. “I do photograph some other things, but my own personal work is this kind of work — landscapes, trees, occasionally photographing people or nudes.”

Muse noted that he keeps busy with volunteering his photographic expertise to help promote good causes, such as the Friends of Music’s Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra and the Jefferson County Farmland Protection Program.

“I do that kind of thing as a way to give back,” Muse said.

For some attendees, the photographs selected for display proved to be a bit of a surprise.

“I think he’s a genius, I really do!” said Patty Bachner, of Shepherdstown. “Look there at the photo of that old tree — it speaks of age and makes you think, ‘How old is that tree and how long has it been there and where am I in relation to that tree?’”

Patty and her husband, John Bachner, have been longtime admirers of Muse’s work. They have viewed many of Muse’s art exhibits and purchased some of his pieces over the eight years they have been acquainted with him.

“He’s really gifted,” John said. “I always love seeing his stuff. These are wonderful — they highlight the beauty of what I can see in my own backyard. But the nudes that he’s done are just fantastic. They aren’t porno or anything like that. In them, you can’t really tell for sure if the women in them are really nude — it’s very artistic.”

The gallery’s next exhibit will feature the work of accomplished local watercolor painter Dana Wyatt, who was selected by the library’s art committee.

After many years of experience, one will often look back with learned wisdom on things they would have done differently from the beginning to get where they are today faster. In this video, we hear from an experienced landscape photographer about things they wish they had known.

The voice of experience is often wiser, having learned through trial and error firsthand what provides the most value. In this video, landscape photographer Nigel Danson reviews several things he would have done sooner in his approach to landscape photography.

Danson addresses several items during the video, some reinforcing the importance of getting up early and out before sunrise to take advantage of the early morning light, and staying out late to capture the fading light of sunset. Or the importance of simplifying scenes and emphasizing your landscape photography subject with minimal distractions.

There were several that aren’t heard as often. Becoming an expert on the weather. Environmental conditions can be so important for that extra in your photo; understanding the weather and how to interpret the weather models yourself can help increase your chances of unique conditions.

Danson includes several other tips in the video that I found valuable as a practicing landscape photographer. I believe we can learn from other people’s experiences, and his list helps reinforce the importance of several key concepts. 

How about you? What would you have done differently earlier in your photography path?

“The idea of creating tintypes (or any film photograph) just to feed a content machine gives me intense anxiety…” photographer Ashley Jennings told us a while back in an interview. Considering how few photographers do this, we’re sure many others can relate. Ashley’s photos are stunning, and you can see them on her Instagram. Inspired by the MoMA exploring art speaking to anxiety, we decided to dive into our archives. The Phoblographer has interviewed several photographers over the years — many of whom have anxiety and openly speak about it with it. This is an exploration. We’re analyzing what 12 different photographers have told us about anxiety and how it fuels them.

All images were used with permission from the photographers in our interviews with them. Lead image by Brett Stanley.

Expressing the Effects of Anxiety in Photographs

Many photographers that we’ve interviewed in the past have expressed anxiety as a catalyst for how they create their images. We noticed a trend when we went through our archives: many of these photographers were conceptual. In some cases, there’s a lot of self-portraiture. But in almost every case, there is very expressive imagery showing that photography can be a seriously communicative art form.

One of our all-time favorites is from Jonathan Higbee. Jon is ultimately mostly known for his work as a street photographer. But if you’ve ever spoken to him about his background and life, you’ll understand deeper things about him.

“For ‘Akathisia,’ my self-portrait series named after a side-effect of SSRI withdrawal, the fact that there are many days where it’s emotionally impossible for me to leave the apartment into part of the series,” said Jonathan Higbee in our 2016 interview. “All of the series so far has been shot in my NYC apartment, which is not only appropriate for the project — it forces me to be more creative considering the limited space, lighting challenges, and immutable background.” He continued to tell us that he hopes that it helps others too. The feeling of wanting to help others and express their own problems is evident in nearly all the work of photographers we’ve talked to.

In the image above by Higbee, we can see so many elements that show a sense of anxiety in the image.

• Jon is trying to go about doing a mundane task like steaming a shirt
• He’s being actively pulled back into the closet with bloody feet
• There is a hand of something or someone pulling him. And we don’t know what it is.
• The expression on his face
• We’re in a very small space that makes the image feel cramped, and therefore, we get a further sense of anxiousness from the image.

All of this information is evident from a single image. But Jonathan made this into an entire series for us to look at. When you understand Jon’s background, it all comes into clarity. However, even if you didn’t understand where Higbee came from, you’d see what we’re talking about in this image.

Jon, of course, isn’t the only photographer that creates this way — and he’s not as prominently well known for it in comparison to his incredible street photography. Photographer Maren Klemp channels anxiety in a way that’s completely different. For her, it’s all about family, according to interviews that we’ve done with her. Maren makes conceptual photographs that tell stories around several issues around her family. In the photographs, she often uses her own children as subjects.

“Anxiety can make you lose your connection with reality for a short while,” she tells us. “During panic attacks, a lot of strange images pop up in my mind. These images are surreal and have no roots in reality.” The process of making the images kept Maren busy and forced her to deal with her emotions at the same time. Like Jonathan, she chose to not run from them. Instead, she chose to transmute this energy. Maren’s images surely have an impact — though they’re in a more sedate way than what we see from Jonathan. If someone is a parent, they’d probably hate to see their kids in a situation like this. In fact, it’s often said that some of the worst pain is when a parent outlives their child.

Transmuting energy and feelings is often a popular tactic in art. Picasso transmuted love and expressed it as such in his rose period while transmuting sadness during his blue period. Similarly, William Carlos Williams expressed the beauty he found in life through his poetry and tied it in with metaphors and imagery that has left a mark on modern writing today.

A photographer that channels anxiety completey different is Brett Stanley. In our 2022 interview with him, he told he that water makes him anxious — but despite that, he tackles it with underwater photography.

“I feel like I belong when I’m underwater, but it also scares me,” he told us. “I have anxiety about water, and panic attacks, which is really confusing when that’s where my mind goes when I try to relax – but I love it so much that I have to overcome my fear every time just to I can get in the water and feel alive.” Looking at his images, Brett is clearly not running from the water. Instead, he’s trying to tackle his anxiety while distracting his mind and becoming more comfortable. One might think that he’s using the anxiety to focus even harder on making the images better. He in fact builds his own sets and all.

Here are several other photographers that we’ve interviewed who also channel their anxieties.

DJ Morrow

DJ Morrow is a fascinating photographer that uses a lot of balloons in his images. “…I started creating more thoughtful and artistic balloon creations at home as a way of dealing with the emotions of despair and anxiety that come with your entire livelihood disappearing,” he told us in an interview. In his images, we see how it can preoccupy his mind and how he channels it into his creative vision.

Nwabisa Salukazana

In our interview, we spoke of Nwabisa Salukazana‘s photographs as incredible works of conceptual art — and we’re glad that we found him! He tells us about how some of his images try to convey anxiety by using things like a static screen. That’s totally how anxiety can feel at times.

Christy Lee Rogers

Look at the photographs of Christy Lee Rogers, and you’ll see a lot of inspiration from paintings. Always trying to one-up herself, she gets anxiety — which makes her try harder according to what she told us. In her case, she’s using it as creative motivation to always do better. A therapist is bound to always ask you why you have to do better — and we all have our own reasons. But in today’s world, photographers really have to find ways to keep outdoing themselves.

Holly Stones

Photographer Holly Stones is incredible fascinating to us partially because her very intentional use of color. She used to do a lot of photoshop work until he started to want to make more photographs in-camera. “I have suffered a lot with self-doubt, crippling anxiety, and depression over the years,” Holly explains to us in an interview. “Self-portraiture has helped me to channel those emotions. It allows me to express myself vulnerably, which in turn resonates with others and makes me feel connected to the world.” More importantly, it taught her patience, persistence, and to be kinder to herself. 

Jaina Cipriano

Jaina Cipriano escaped from a cult growing up. She channels anxiety into work that always feels like we’re recieving a gift from someone. She doesn’t use Photoshop and instead works on making the props herself and doing it all in-camera. We called her the best thing since Gregory Crewdson.

Silvia Alessi

“The mass of ideas that rotates in my head and in my heart is so enormous that sometimes I feel like I cannot grasp it, and this is a source of anxiety,” Silvia Alessi told us in an interview. There’s a lot to unpack in her photographs, and some of it might be disturbing to westerners.

Cherisha Kay Norman

In her photos, Cherisha tries to spread the word about mental health awareness. “The series is mostly trying to depict a visual representation of the sensation of dealing with different types of mental illness, from anxiety, depression, dissociation, mania, and even psychosis,” she said to us in our interview. “I created the double exposure effect in Photoshop because, as someone who deals with chronic mental illness, it feels like I am separating from myself in multiple ways.”

Mariana Cheoo

“Taking photos of myself allowed me to know my imperfections, to know myself as a person, what my limits were and how far I could push myself,” Mariana Cheoo told us in an interview. “I use my body as an art form and the social network, if used wisely, is an important tool to promote it.” In her images, we expression of issues about her body — which are a key source of anxiety for so many people.

Using Photography to Cope

Not every photographer uses and channels their anxiety when they’re photographing. Instead, some try to run from it and use photography as a way to distract their mind from it. “I loved the tactile feeling/sound of cranking the film advance lever and pressing the shutter button of my parent’s old 35mm,” John Barbiaux told us in an interview. “It wasn’t until I was an adult that I started to explore it, mostly as a way to cope with the constant anxiety of my job during the financial turmoil of 2008 (my day job is finance). By then, I was interested in the actual image, so I signed up for a class at my local Ritz Camera store to learn how to use the manual settings on my camera (an Olympus Pen).”

From John’s images, you might get the vibe that he’s really into Stephen King novels. But you may also see a sense of solace that is often found in the work of someone like Todd Hido. If we look at the image plainly as it is, we can see that there is haze and that we’re looking at a gas station with some spotlights on it. Compositionally speaking, it’s a very clean photograph. If someone didn’t know any better, we wouldn’t think that we’re looking at the images of someone running from anxiety. Instead, someone without an education in the arts would say, “That’s cool.”

With this said, photographers can use anxiety in several different ways. Each of the photographer’s that we’ve taken a look at use it to create and capture. Even when they’re capturing, they’re putting a unique spin on the images that we haven’t seen anywhere else.

Wedding and event photographers can feel out of place if they’re not dressed for the occasion. However, typical suits aren’t built with photography in mind. Enter Unix Tokyo’s Shooting Suit for photographers, available now at major Japanese camera store Bic Camera.

“Are you having trouble photographing your wedding?” Unix Tokyo asks, citing the need for formal attire that typically lacks storage capacity, especially for women. Traditional suits are also not flexible. “What I always felt was that the suit seemed difficult to move around in,” the designer continues.

Unix, which designs and makes uniforms for many businesses, worked with a veteran wedding photographer to design the Shooting Suit, focusing on comfort, mobility, and helpful storage for accessories and extra lenses.

The suit jacket is suitable for formal occasions and is built using Solotex, a four-way stretchable material that “takes into account the movement of the photographer.”

The main side pocket is deep enough for carrying lenses and includes a lens cloth for cleaning optics. It also includes silicone buttons, ensuring that the lens isn’t scratched. Large internal pockets are suitable for safely storing memory cards and other thin items.

As for the pants, they include a typical formal style and tapered silhouette. They also include rubber on the back for “easy movement and comfort.” It is unclear what “rubber” means in the translation, but presumably, the waistband is stretchy and flexible.

While some suits, especially wool ones, require professional cleaning, Unix says that its photography suit can be washed at home and will air dry in as little as six hours.

A pop-up event at Bic Camera started this week and will run through March 31. Unix also sells the Shooting Suit through its online store. (https://unixtokyo.stores.jp/) The jacket, available for men and women, is ¥37,400, which is $255 at current exchange rates. The pants are ¥20,900 ($142). These items are not cheap but perhaps are well worth it for photographers who struggle to work in traditional formal attire.

Not everybody is on board, however. Digital Camera World‘s Hannah Rooke says a black suit has never made her so angry, calling it “one of the worst products I’ve ever seen.”

Those who see Unix’s new Shooting Suit and find themselves intrigued more than infuriated can view complete details on Unix’s website.

Image credits: Unix Tokyo

When British photographer Mike Lane’s car was stolen in October, he also lost a good amount of gear that was inside. Not long after, Lane spotted his tripod — one item stolen from his car — for sale on eBay. This is where his journey really begins.

Lane quickly sprung into action doing the sensible thing: he Googled what to do. This led him to his local police department where he initially filed a report after his car was stolen. He showed an image of the tripod from before it was taken and compared it with the listing showing it had to be the same. Lane’s tripod was outfitted specifically, so he was positive it was the same as the one on eBay. The police took the number of the eBay listing down as well as the name attached to the seller’s profile and added the information to the report. But Lane had an important question: should he purchase the stolen tripod?

The officer told him that since it may be a while before they respond, then yes, it would help ensure he actually gets the equipment back. So he did just that, putting up his own money which he hoped to eventually get back.

The situation picked up again once the tripod arrived. Lane confirmed it was his, but took things a step further. He looked at the address on the package, which was for a location about 10 miles away, and decided to pay it a visit. The trip was a bit uneventful as the woman working at the shop said it was only the accounts department and didn’t have anything to do with sales. With no further information gleaned, Lane left. But, before heading out, he noticed the sign above the storefront with the name “Cash Converters.”

Cash Converters is a chain where people can buy and sell second-hand goods or pawn items. Lane was encouraged by the website’s language that ensured it is against the buying and selling of stolen goods and its willingness to take a financial loss to reimburse buyers for such items. Propelled by this, he sent an email to the company about his situation.

However, he found the language the company used to be more forceful than the actual actions taken. Cash Converters urged him to work with eBay, which Lane already expected to be less than helpful based on his earlier research. That turned out to be the case when the eBay employee he spoke with wasn’t sure what to do next, despite their seeming eagerness to help.

Another wrinkle appeared when, before receiving an email response from Cash Converters, he decided to stop by the branch where the package was sent from, according to the tracking info. In addition to any further information, Lane wanted to see if he could spot any more of his stolen items at the shop. He didn’t, but the manager told Lane he recently learned that the tripod sold was stolen. Lane asked if the person brought in any more of his gear, but the manager said he couldn’t give that information out freely.

So, Lane turned back to the police department to see how his case was being followed up on. It seemed that, despite it being a month later, things were stalled, waiting for an officer to be assigned the case. Lane then turned to his Member of Parliament, who emailed the police and not long after, someone was assigned. Lane wasn’t sure if the timing was coincidental or if the MP’s email moved things along, but he was happy for the progress all the same.

Things were finally coming together, but Lane still had one last thing to do. The police told him that, in order to get his money back, the photographer would have to return the tripod to Cash Converters to get a refund. The police would then collect the stolen goods from the business and bring it back to him. That’s exactly what he did. And so, just over another two weeks later, refund already in hand, Lane got his tripod back from the police.

It was a long odyssey for Lane to get back his property and it wasn’t even the only item he had stolen. While Lane says there were luckily no cameras or lenses in the car, there was plenty of other gear lost alongside the tripod. Lane isn’t the first or only to have gear stolen, and it’s astonishing just how much legwork it took on his side to get even a single item back. Still, Lane keeps a sense of humor, joking at the end of his video about his new “security” dog system.

PetaPixel has reached out to Lane to see if he was able to get any of his other stolen items or car back and will update this story if he responds.

Image credits: Mike Lane, YouTube

Arlene Gottfried was a striking street photographer of 1970s and 1980s New York City, when Times Square was more gritty than it was Disney, to say the least. The archive of her work amounts to hundreds of boxes of film which her family is working to preserve.

Gottfried passed away in 2017 at the age of 66 due to breast cancer, leaving her archive to her siblings Karen and Gilbert Gottfried, the late comedian and actor. The New York Times recently covered the effort to maintain both Arlene Gottfried’s physical work and her legacy, noting the photographer asked her brother and his wife, Dara Gottfried, to make sure her career is remembered. However, shortly after her death, Gilbert Gottfried himself fell ill, eventually passing away in 2022 at the age of 67.

Now, Dara Gottfried is busy taking on the task of handling Arlene’s art, digitizing it, and, in the long term, determining where it should go and how to keep the images accessible to the public.

“Arlene wanted her legacy kept alive in museums or shows or galleries,” Dara Gottfried told The Times. “Gilbert and I wanted to honor her wishes to have her work shared with the world, so it could live on forever.”

Daniel Cooney of New York City art gallery Daniel Cooney Fine Art tells PetaPixel that there have been scores of New York City street photographers. He asks, rhetorically, what is it that sets Arlene Gottfried’s work apart?

“Her work was all kind of very much about her approach,” he says. “No one else could make those pictures because they’re specific to the way she saw the world. And so, in a way, even though they’re street photographs and they’re about the streets of New York City, they’re very revealing about who she was because she put herself into it.”

Cooley began working with Arlene Gottfried over a decade ago and remains involved with her family in helping keep the photographer’s work visible. Cooney gave Arlene her first show and put on another with her work while she was still alive. Since her passing, Cooney says he’s put on three shows featuring her work.

Additionally, Arlene’s work will be featured in Paris and Germany this year before Cooley hosts another with Arlene’s image, which is likely to take place next year.

He says the plan right now is to focus on exhibiting the artist’s work while the family, with whom he works closely, eventually finds a permanent home for Arlene Gottfried’s archive. It’s an undertaking that comes with as many obstacles as reasons to get it right. For example, Cooley tells PetaPixel that taking on 10,000 to 15,000 photographs, storing and displaying them properly, cataloging, and digitizing them, takes a great deal of resources. Museum space and public library budgets are finite. And it’s possible to run into more mundane issues, for example, a curator one is working with could leave for a different post.

“It’s not that easy,” Cooley says. “It’s a very complicated process.”

Meanwhile, finding the right place is even more difficult than simply finding any place to take the massive archive. The family would prefer the collection is not taken in without keeping it accessible.

“If somebody’s writing up a dissertation on street photography, you want them to have access, and a lot of archives won’t allow access to things like that,” Cooley says. “So it has to be the right place, and there’s so many variables.”

And there is a great deal to gain from studying Arlene Gottfried’s work. Beyond the images, there’s a great deal to learn about how to approach street photography one can glean from her images.

“She had a lot of empathy and compassion because she was always photographing people that were kind of on the fringes of culture or on the fringes of society, say. And she never approached those people with anything but respect. She always approached people as equals, and it’s a robust and exciting view of the time that she lived in,” Cooley explains to PetaPixel.

He notes that the result is seen in the photographs themselves. There’s an ease and comfort in Arlene Gottfried’s subjects, which is made even more impressive when, as Cooley points out, she doesn’t stay with these subjects for long.

“For the most part, for the work that people know, she wasn’t really spending time getting to know people,” he says. “I mean, most of the people she photographed, she would meet, take a few pictures, and then move on. So it wasn’t like she had time to gain trust through conversation. It was just sort of her demeanor and her body language.”

Cooley further paints the picture: Arlene Gottfried, standing at a petite five feet, without a photographer on the streets of New York City. He notes that she had a shyness about her and wouldn’t walk into a scene and try to take over. Instead, she was driven by true curiosity, coupled with respect, and able to gain the trust of gang members and heroin addicts, as well as children and ordinary people riding the subway. Beyond her authentic interest in her subjects, Arlene Gottfried found kinship in them.

“I think that she was endlessly curious about the world, trying to make sense of it and trying to make sense of her place in the world,” Cooley says. “She wasn’t out photographing people because they were different from her. She was photographing people that were the same as her. She was photographing similarities in herself.”

He says her prime motivation was being an artist.

“And so,” he continues, “inherent in that is kind of being an outsider.”

Image credits: Photographs by Arlene Gottfried, Courtesy of Daniel Cooley