“Through photography I attempt to speak in a language which comes easier to me than words - one in which images articulate my vision, tell a story or channel an emotion.  My photographs examine that brief slant of sun, a second hand’s pause.  With portraiture I hope to unearth the raw and wild nature that lives within us all. 

Using both film and digital cameras I follow the whirlwind of childhood as my three daughters and their peers traverse the landscape, dance in the dying light.  In the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains they grow from children into adolescents along the path to adulthood.  And in this amorphous phase between the two worlds this betwixt-ness often manifests in changes both physical and psychological.  The Virginia landscape provides a respite from technology, a temporary reprieve from a world filled with injustice, a world of men.  Immersed in the natural world my daughters settle into themselves, Eves and angels, sea monsters and tree spirits.  Their gazes are unflinchingly honest, unblinking and true.  

These myths and stories are what I endeavor to illuminate as I look for the lyric moment. Whether a fiery glance or a quiet gesture of repose, the images speak of youth and of wildness, of bravery and of the inchoate natural world - the imprints and desires that it leaves with us.”

- Courtney Coker

ABOUT THE ARTISTS