Making Thoughts Visual
by Gwen Adler, AB 1979

Gwen Adler and Orange Square

During my final moments as a student at Washington University in St. Louis, I sat in the Quad absorbing the speech of one of my remarkable professors, the writer William Gass, as he spoke about "Learning to Talk" in his Commencement address to the class of 1979. I listened to him say: "Our thoughts tend to travel like our shadow in the morning walking west, casting their outline just ahead of us so that we can see and approve, or amend and cancel, what we are about to say." His words reflect the goal of my own artwork: to capture the commentary in my mind, always dangling there before me, and re-create it visually in my work.

Following my four expansive years as an anthropology major at WU, I worked in a professional photography studio and then studied photography and painting, receiving a master's degree from NYU. I moved on to work as a teacher of art and photography in middle/high school, a wardrobe and set designer for theater, and a freelance photographer. I credit WU for its willingness to be flexible in bending the “rules” in allowing me to access art school photography classes along with my anthropology major. My anthropology courses enabled me to explore and develop thoughts about the world and its inhabitants, and about people and what they do to shape the environment in which we all live. Working for my professor, Robert Sussman, to provide darkroom services for his hundreds of Madagascar lemur photos helped interconnect my anthropological and visual thinking. Photography classes provided the opportunity to hone my skills in an artistic environment that nurtured my aesthetic and creative thoughts.

My current work as a photographer synthesizes these experiences. Interested in the artifacts of our ancestors alongside the products of our contemporary material culture, I explore candid moments in photos that work technically and compositionally, while seeking to capture the energy and visual stimulation of a place. My latest work will be shown at the Manhattan Municipal Building in March 2012. Much of this work was photographed in my home city, New York. NYC provides for me an inspiring visual record that is at once historical and current in its dense compression of architecture, design, how people live, spend their time, what they make, and what they sell.

As Professor Gass helped me to understand all those years ago, my photos are the tangible illustration of the chatter in my head about the world I see before me. Details of my upcoming show will be posted on my website http://gwenadler.com/Gwen_Adler/Home.html, where you can view my recent work.