Amy Heller
Time/Motion Study Multiples
I have always loved dance and movement. As a child I was constantly in motion, dancing to the Beatles or pretending to be a ballerina. Even when seemingly at rest I "moved." I would lie on the living room couch, staring up at the cathedral ceiling, dreaming of the world upside-down. As an adult, I still have a fascination with motion and time: I am a child at heart, evidenced by my large collection of wind-up toys.
I fell in love with the late 19th century human locomotion photographic experiments of Étienne-Jules Marey, Eadweard Muybridge, and others and started experimenting with the moving film stroboscopy technique of shooting motion. After many "happy accidents" I came up with my own version of Time/Motion studies, using the nude figure as a subject as well as a foil.
I love the implied motion, the stopping of time, and the liminal spaces with abstract patterns created by photographic alchemy. I have examined the idea of motion and reality and seeing the unseen: what exists and yet cannot be perceived by the naked eye. Through the use of multiple imagery, the photographs reveal images that display surreal, dreamlike themes and moods, explore time, and produce on a flat surface, multi-dimensional creations in time and space. There are virtually limitless visual possibilities inherent in these techniques.
My new series of reimagined Time/Motion Study Multiples combines the old (analog) with the new (digital) spanning three centuries of photographic exploration. The first time I shot the photos with black and white film and printed panoramic images. Now the second time around I am collaging and layering those earlier analog images in the digital world, creating new works of art. I am always experimenting with different ways of making art and feel like I’m an artist in search of a medium that hasn’t been invented yet. Maybe I will invent it?!
Award-winning artist Amy Heller, originally from Washington, DC, lives year-round on Cape Cod with her husband.
Amy earned her B.A. in fine art at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, and her M.F.A. in photography at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC She has been an exhibit specialist for Smithsonian Museums and National Gallery of Art, and a photo editor/researcher/curator for U.S. News & World Report, National Geographic, Microsoft, and the Newseum.
Her work has been exhibited and collected internationally and this includes: Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dimock Gallery at GWU, and many private collections.
In 2024 she received an award for the 22nd Julia Margaret Cameron Photography Awards.