Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Diane Morey
Article 49 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the August 3, 2005 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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The Magical Whimsy of Life
"I work out there and I work in here. I am a hollow reed. Everything flows through me. The trick is to keep in balance." To meet Diane Morey is to experience that flow of energy she talks about - open, receptive - the kinetic joy of being alive.
Diane does not always carry her camera. Sometimes she just looks and takes a mental shot - her inner lens is working all the time, even if it doesn't look like she is. She might walk around for three days, as she did recently at "The Gathering" in Big Bear, California - an annual event where shamans and healers from around the world come to offer healing - before she picks up her camera.
"The person is always more important than the picture. You have to get to know them before you start clicking - otherwise that old taboo about stealing their soul becomes real. You have to be accepted. You have to ask permission."
The spring issue of Canadian Camera showcases Diane's photographs of the Bushmen documenting with her text the weeklong conference of sacred healing. "Two years ago my father died. I had to commit to my passion for photography - not to wait any longer to become what I want. And then this opportunity arose. Life is serendipity - you just have to be ready for it."
Diane grew up in the '70s in a loving, supportive family in Gatineau. "We used to travel by car, listening to music. Outside my window the whole world would be passing by - like a movie - I could imagine it all on film."
However, after her degree in Film and Communications from McGill, Diane realized it wasn't film that compelled her but photography. "You can capture a photograph in a hundred ways. The viewer will make her own movie out of it. A photo is like a two-way mirror, open to endless interpretation."
Most of all Diane is drawn to portraiture. "I love photographing kids - you know that moment when you catch them on the fly, their feet just leaving the earth - I want to capture their every mood. I like to say, 'Okay, you've got your birth certificate. Here's your emotional imprint!'"
Her work shines through a veil of nostalgia, the faces timeless, as if suspended in an emotional aura from decades ago - clear, pure, innocent. "I look for a soul connection, a bond as if we have known each other forever. My mantra is - no ego, no ego, no ego.
"I prefer to photograph outdoors - in black and white. I love working in natural lighting. I have no studio, no professional advertising - my work travels word of mouth, like I do - looking for that moment of magical whimsy, of mutual exchange when everyone comes alive.
"I want to be known as a photographer from a small town. I want to bring back a world that I love. I know that I have only just begun, only scratched the surface. But this is my life's work, and in honour of my Dad, I mean to fulfill it."