Direct Positive
WILLIE ANNE WRIGHT
November 5 - December 23, 2015
Willie Anne Wright, Pawley’s Island, South Carolina: Nancy by the Ocean, 4.28.1983.
Candela Books is pleased to announce our sixth book release, Direct Positive, with Richmond, Virginia native and fine art photographer, Willie Anne Wright. This new release is accompanied by an exhibition at Candela Books + Gallery.
Wright began her career as a painter. Beginning in the 1970s, her focus shifted to pinhole photography as her primary medium. Direct Positive explores Wright’s innovative use of Cibachrome color material and her production of unique direct positive images. Strangely saturated color, visual distortion and vibrant ideas gave rise to these beautiful and insistent objects.
The artist embraced the unexpected while blending older techniques with diverse contemporary motifs. This one-of-a-kind collection portrays Wright’s mystic journey through pinhole photography. Darkly beautiful in one photograph and then startlingly emotional in the next, each image is unexpected and impactful.
Willie Anne Wright, a Richmond, Virginia native, holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. She also studied photography at the Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport, Maine and the Visual Studies Workshops in Rochester, New York. Her paintings, serigraphs and drawings were exhibited widely until 1972 when pinhole photography became her primary creative medium.
Among the institutions that have acquired her photography are the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, Virginia; Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, Florida; High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama; Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia; University of Maine, Bangor, Maine; University of Mary Washington, Fredricksburg, Virginia; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia; and the New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Midlothian, Virginia: Still Life with Richard’s Road #4, 8.08.1981. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia: Cardinals Set-up for A, E, and Mr B., 6.21.1982. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Memories of Anne & Evelyn – Backyard #3, 5.05.1982. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Still Life Set-up – To San Francisco, 1980. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Richmond, VA: Fruits and Flowers with Postcard, 6.08.1981. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Midlothian, Virginia: Still Life with Richard’s Road #2, 9.11.1981. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia: Joan by Her Pool, 1986. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia: Sarah at Casa’s Pool, 6.22.1985. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 11 x 14 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia: Jack B.’s Pool with Peonies, 5.08.1986. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Figs and Woman in White, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 11 x 14 inches. Unique.
Still Life with LA Style, 9.23.1989. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Irvington, Virginia: Marsha with Fabric – Nick and Dorothy’s Pool, 8.29.1980. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia: Alma and Bill’s Pool, 9.05.1984. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Before Lia, October 1988. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Virginia Beach, Virginia: Louise on a Lounge, undated. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia Nancy – The New Pool at Maymont, 4.04.1981. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Pawley’s Island, South Carolina Nancy by the Ocean, 4.28.1983. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Sandbridge, Virginia: Susan and Ann, 9.13.1979. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Irvington, Virginia: Anne S. – Nick and Dorothy’s Pool #4, 6.11.1982. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia: Ed & Jerry’s Pool #3, 8.07.1984. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia: Virginia B. at Polly’s Pool, 6.24.1984. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 11 x 14 inches. Unique.
Before Lucca, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Still Life with Richard’s Road #5, 9.10.1981. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Virginia Beach, Virginia: Ann S., Undated. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Before Lucca, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Before Lucca, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Port Royal, Virginia: Abandoned Pool at Bailey’s, August 1984. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 11 x 14 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia: Sweyer’s Pool, 1984. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Before Lucca, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Virginia Beach, Virginia: Etta - I Am A Woman, 1979. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 10 x 8 inches. Unique.
Virginia Beach, Virginia: Marsha and the Artichoke, 5.30.1978. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Memories of Anne & Evelyn – Roses and Hats, 5.29.1982. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 16 x 20 inches. Unique.
Before Lucca, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Before Lucca, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Tappahannock, Virginia: Fairy Ring at Jeff’s, 6.16.1985. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 11 x 14 inches. Unique.
Rolling Stone – Patti Smith and Friends, 1978. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Richmond, VA: Fruits and Flowers with Postcard #2, 6.08.1981. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Richmond, Virginia: Anne S. at Jack B.’s Pool #2, 9.7.1983. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 11 x 14 inches. Unique.
Jack and Edward, 7.30.1983. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 11 x 14 inches. Unique.
Before Lucca, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Before Lucca, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Colonial Beach, Virginia: Group in Late Afternoon, 3.01.1981. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Before Lucca, 1987. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 8 x 10 inches. Unique.
Homage to Antoine Francois Jean Claudet #3, 1976. Cibachrome Pinhole Photograph, 6 x 6 inches. Unique.