About Pamela

Statement

I make painterly photographs shooting up through the surface of water. My pictures reveal another, not entirely unfamiliar world, in which water, as a medium, brings to light the energy and life forces animating and uniting all things.

My work embraces and exploits the properties of water and light as they interact with my subjects. Water is a lens. Through my process, it becomes a shifting, multi-lobed extension to the camera, distorting the appearance of people, structures and landscapes outside the water. Surface tension allows ripples, waves and bubbles to form and cohere. Refraction bends light and separates the color spectrum into its components—the rainbow. Or not: at a critical angle, water is reflective.

Working in pools, ponds, lakes and the sea, I consider the effects that wind, swells, salt, organic matter and time of day will have on my subjects. By controlling my relative depth and agitating the surface of the water with my flippers and hands, my body becomes a human paintbrush that actively affects the image. My pictures present a visible record of my energy as it joins with other forces to unmask another reality we suspect is ever-present, just below the surface.

Bio

Pamela Crimmins was born in New York City and raised in Connecticut. She studied both painting and photography as an undergraduate. After graduation, she served as an intern photographer at the American Embassy in Rabat, Morocco. Upon her return, she moved to New York City, where she continued to paint and photograph and co-directed a non-profit that created murals with children. She began taking pictures underwater in 1996 while teaching her children how to swim. Since then, her work has been exhibited and collected nationally. Pamela taught art in NYC public schools and other venues for 40 years. She lives in Manhattan.