Claire Wright's Solo Exhibit at The Waverly Street Gallery, in Bethesda, MD

Reverie is my first solo show. It will be featured at the Waverly Street Gallery in Bethesda from

Oct. 29 to Nov. 25. The opening reception is November 3 6-8pm.

Nature is at the center of my work. The images I create can be close ups, drone shots or multiple exposure works, the idea remains the same. I want to draw the viewer into another world, to transport them into their own dreams. When I am behind the lens, I often enter a contemplative realm, where time slows, fully immersed in what I am capturing. I hope to draw you into your own contemplative state, offering a sense of peace, even in images that may express sadness. I hope the smile I wore while crouching to take a shot is infectious.

When I see shapes, patterns, and colors, I have an intuition of an image. It’s often very unclear until I am processing the image on the computer.

My training as a biologist, working on microscopes for years, probably led me to see things that are invisible for the naked eye. I used to look at cells for hours at a time and found their aspect utterly interesting.

For as long as I can recall, woods, fields, and mountains have been my refuge, the place I go to recenter, and to find comfort in beauty. Outside the lab, I was a passionate rock climber. I loved going up to reach a place where I could look down and watch birds of prey flying below my feet, where I could see forests like green oceans. I would bring a camera when I could to capture climbing actions and the improbable views. When the first commercial drones became available for a reasonable price, I imagined all the possibilities, the incredible views, the unique perspectives, so naturally I bought one. Each time I fly my drone, I am mesmerized by the wonders the camera can capture. Aerial photography, like macrophotography, transports me into a world with a scale of its own. A landscape from high up can become the inside of a cell, and a close-up of a leaf can be a city map.

My photography rarely tries to depict a realistic landscape or make a portrait of a staged living being. It captures an instant, a living being in motion (animal or human), an ephemerous detail my camera could catch. While the human eye is dynamic and more powerful than any camera I’ll ever hold in my hands, a camera has other tricks in its hat. It can help recreate a feeling, a sentiment, even though it will never recreate reality. Multiple exposures and slow exposures can translate my impressions of certain places when a simpler landscape shot would fall short.

With Reverie, I have curated images to transport you into your inner world. I have tried to

recreate an ecosystem, gathering different subjects, pictures taken by different techniques, at differentseasons. I am hoping to give you the sense of mindfulness that I experience when I am behind the lens. Most of my pictures are taken locally, in West Virginia or near my home in Montgomery County, Maryland but some were taken in France, where I grew up.