Bas Relief, Camille Wheatley

Artist: Camille Wheatley

Title: Bas Relief

Medium:  Archival pigment print on metal panel

Dimensions: 14 x 11 inches

Price:  $250

Artist Statement: I am an avid wanderer and a sharp observer. The act of strolling leisurely down an urban street, rain or shine, thrills me to my core. In my wanderings I notice delicate flakes of paint chipping off of a door frame, tendrils of tenuous light creeping through a dust-covered window, an intrepid weed poking through a cracked concrete foundation, the sunlight eating away at a five o'clock shadow cast from a chain-link fence,  lines weaving this way and that in a tapestry of texture on a building wall, the color and composition of a crumbling sidewalk juxtaposed with an elegantly crumpled piece of trash--in essence, the simultaneously spectacular and mundane details of the built environment.

While some architectural photographers focus on the magnificent or stunning, I revel in the quiet, understated moments in our surroundings. I give the seemingly boring a second chance. My photographic passion lies in finding beauty in the banal, seeking majesty in the mundane, and discovering the divine in the otherwise dull details of life. My photographs are pure, unadulterated scenes pulled directly from my environment. I make no edits whatsoever--no lighting adjustments, no flashy filters, no color highlights, etc. What you see is what you get in my moment of seeing something--the translation of how my eyes converse with the world around me.

Artist Bio: Camille Wheatley has always loved photography, but went to school to become an architect. She attended the University of Utah and received her B.S. Architectural Studies, Honors (summa cum laude), and her M. Arch. from the University of Utah, graduating in 2008. Camille began her architectural licensing exams after the birth of her first daughter in 2010, and subsequently became licensed in the state of Utah in 2013. Camille has worked in all sizes of architectural firms in Utah since 2005, and has contributed her design talents to projects large and small. The birth of her fourth daughter prompted Camille to leave architectural firm employment to begin her own architectural practice in 2017, a dream she’d had since her early days of architectural schooling. She hasn’t looked back since and has enjoyed the freedom that owning her own design studio offers.

One of Camille’s favorite college classes was an architectural photography class. Since then, she’s loved taking photographs with whatever camera she can get her hands on. Photography and architecture go hand in hand. The same sensibilities that accompany good architecture are manifested in good photography: composition, spatial awareness, the presence of and utilization of light, etc. Camille is very influenced by the built environment (i.e., she deeply loves architecture), so architecture often finds its way into her pictures. Her photography has been exhibited in galleries and museums across Utah and the USA.

Camille is a Utah native and the principal architect and owner of Dot Dot Design Studio, PLLC. She resides in Holladay, Utah with her artist husband and their four daughters. In addition to architecture and photography, she loves baking sourdough bread, traveling, and knitting.