Meet Megan Crandlemire: Visiting Artist at Image City

For the past three months visitors to Image City have had the opportunity to view the captivating photos created by Visiting Artist, Megan Crandlemire. Megan, who is journalistic by nature, says she wanted to “entertain the viewer by telling a story with each show.”  Megan’s first display centered around a trip to Phoenix and a houseboating adventure on disappearing Lake Powell in northern Arizona. She created a book in tandem with planning the first show, and she included it in her exhibit. Her second show focused on NYC street photography and her “quirky take on Fashion in NYC.”  Megan’s third display, which can be seen from November 1-November 26, is a mix of landscape and street photography, pulled together using her Rooted in Reality theme and by carefully titling each image.

Megan says, “Coming up with a theme and then curating through my images was great fun. It allowed me to notice new things about images I’ve looked at many times before. For Show 3, I chose to have a tree element in every image, so to look through my street photography and limit myself to only images with trees, proved to be an interesting challenge.” Splendor, one of Megan’s photos in this exhibit, received recognition as a Gallery Pick.

When Megan curates for a show, she enjoys adding writing with her photography as it adds another dimension to her communication with the viewer. For her third show, she included a poem she composed with the single-word titles from the images. Megan says, “My hope is that the viewer lingers a bit on each image to notice the title and how it relates to the theme and artist statement to gain additional perspective on the point of view the image offers.”

The Boot, which was displayed during Show 2 is one of Megan’s favorite images, and she says that quite a few people asked her about it during the First Friday opening event. Megan explains “It’s an intriguing image because it’s a weathered boot isolated on a metal shelf of some kind, with elements that indicate it is in a city setting. I feel the image lends itself to the viewer wanting to make up a story about why a single boot might be abandoned in New York City. If only the boot could talk…”

Often when preparing for an exhibit, photographers face some challenges.  Megan says, that as a storyteller, she always wants to squeeze in one more image, so she says “the physical space limitation was a challenge – unlike designing a photography book where it’s fairly easy to add another page. For shows 2 and 3, I made use of 12”x12” frames to be able to hang additional images in my attempt to take the viewer on a fuller exploration of my theme.”

There are some factors in Megan’s life that have impacted her photography. She says she likes “to gobble up books about spirituality and psychology – to better understand and improve myself, as well as to cultivate more meaningful relationships with others.”  Megan loves street photography because she finds the work intriguing and later when she reflects, she asks herself “why?” She finds herself wondering “what was it about this fleeting moment that made me click – and is the image telling me something about my own psyche?” She has been finding the images she photographed years ago have been becoming increasingly valuable to her personal growth journey.

Megan participates in several events at Image City every year. She says “It was truly an honor to be asked to be a Visiting Artist at the gallery.” She discovered photography as her primary creative outlet, along with writing, a little later in life. She says “It turns out I have the soul of an artist, which explains why I never really felt at home as an engineer.” She says, “Displaying images at Image City inspires me to keep shooting and challenges me to go through my work with an ever-changing discerning eye.”

Additional information about Megan can be found on her website:www.megancrandlemire.com

or on Instagram: @MeganCrandlemire.Photography  She can also be found on Facebook.

If you have a question or would like to comment about Megan’s display, please do so in the comment box below.