One of photography's many gifts is that one can see it, think it, change it and share it. Photography is no longer unique. Most everyone takes photos. From the time man first captured images on a camera till now when photographs can even be taken with a telephone and sent across the world, we communicate, very easily, with images to accompany our words.
This thought does not minimize the significance of these images, nor the ways in which the person freezing the image sees what it is they want to show you and how they want to show you.
Lynne St. Clare Foster does it all. Her special gift is to give us images you want to look at forever. When Fred Beauford suggested, strongly, that I contact Lynne as a possible subject for a Neworld Review portfolio piece, I was intrigued. His suggestion was golden as you will soon see.
At a very early age, a camera was put in Lynne's hands and that was the beginning of her life-long journey. It was a Kodak Instamatic.
She took it wherever she went. "There are two instances when I felt it was magic in my hands. The beginning was the first summer I was at camp. It was a difficult time for me and I was feeling a bit at odds with being there. While walking in the woods in the early morning, I found myself eye to eye with a young deer. As we got close to each other I realized I had my camera. I pulled it out while she stood there as if she was waiting to have her photo snapped. I felt a peace.
“The second time was when I was 9 years old. My family took me to the Empire State building for the first time. Standing on the observation deck I spotted the most beautiful young woman I had ever seen. She was a young Indian woman dressed in a powder pink Sari. Again this feeling of peace and satisfaction overtook me."
Receiving her BFA from Pratt Institute and her MFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts under the direction of Marshall Arisman, Lynne has used her abilities in editorial and political illustration work to deal with controversial subject matter. As a visual artist, illustrator, and photographer, she tells stories that provoke thought and conversation through pictures.
Throughout her career she has worked as an editorial illustrator. Her fine art work has been shown in a variety of galleries. Working in advertising afforded her the opportunity to present concepts and images she believed in without compromise. Although she has always used the camera as reference in her work it has only been recently that she has chosen to make it a serious part of her art.
Presently she is working as a photojournalist documenting culture in a variety of countries. "This project has taken me around the world where I have photographed the every day events of the people. I am looking to capture, in an unstructured setting, the texture of daily life and qualities people share beyond the material.
"One year after Hurricane Katrina I was sent to New Orleans to document the aftermath of the storm. This was the first time I used my camera in conjunction with my drawing. I interviewed people in the 9th ward to produce a combination of images that were very powerful."
In January 2013, Lynne will return to Malaysia where she will be showing her drawings and photographs from New Orleans after Katrina. She is in the midst of preparations for her upcoming show of Cuba.
Presently, she illustrates for The Independent and a variety of political publications while producing a line of cards and invitations for a start up company. Her clients also include The Wall Street Journal, Penthouse, Dallas Morning News, Better Health & Living, Working Woman, Psychology Today, Scholastic, Medical Economics, National Opera Society, Nurse Practitioner, Analytical Chemistry, The Lutheran, Skye Records, Cincinnati Magazine, Congregations, Delaware Today, Gallery, and Hunter College among others.
Her international travels take her to exotic places to document the culture and relevant current events of our time. Her work has been published in Artists Against the War - the book and Society of Illustrators show edited by Steve Brodner and Tim Underwood. Her work also featured in Art Revolution: Alternative Approaches for Fine Artists and Illustrators.
Lynne St. Clare Foster lives and works in Harlem. She is founder and coordinator of the weekly Jazz Sketch Nights at the Society of Illustrators and teaches at Pratt Institute and City College in NYC.
Each of us is unique in our own way, and so is the way we see the world. Neworld Review is proud to present the work of Lynne St. Clare Foster's view of Singapore. Now, having had the opportunity to learn about this wonderful artist, I can easily understand Fred Beauford's enthusiasm…which you will most likely share in.
