Vintage Vignettes - About the Artist
For over 10 years, Dana Matthews, Vintage
Vignette's sole photographer, has created family portraits in the mesmerizing
and languidly sensual tradition begun in the 1920's by the great pioneer
portraitists Julia Margaret Cameron and Gertrude Kasebier.
Unlike most portrait photographers, Dana focuses on capturing genuine,
natural, and distinct expressions, rather than the strained and frozen
smiles seen in typical family portraits. Instead of limiting the photographic
session to one fixed background, Dana prefers a more mobile approach,
allowing her subjects to interact with the environment in a variety of
settings that feature lush flower gardens, graceful old trees, open meadows,
and stone benches and stairways.
Children inevitably loosen up in the freedom of the beautiful outdoors, and even the shyest, most notorious scowler will give the camera a sweet smile once Dana unleashes her special secret weapon -- the child wrangler!
All of Dana's child wranglers are trained in Music Together? classes, theatrical improvisation and clowning. As the children become relaxed and absorbed in the child wrangler's antics, Dana is able to move about and shoot freely and unobtrusively in order to get a wide range of spontaneous poses.
Dana shoots in ambient, natural light with a medium-format camera, using black and white film. The final prints are available in black and white, sepia tone, or hand-tinted color. The hand-tinting is created with oil paints applied directly to the surface of a sepia-toned photograph to give the final result a warm, old-fashioned and classic look. All the prints are archival (will last forever!) and printed on special, warm-tone watercolor-type paper. Every phase of the portrait's production is performed by our staff of professional artists in-house, by hand, in our studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Dana photographs children of all ages, including infants from around six months (or whenever they begin sitting up). Vintage Vignettes can make any type of portrait, from an individual child to an extended family reunion. Many of our clients also like to include their treasured family pets!
Occasionally, we will photograph inside your home or in our studio, but we prefer to capture the beauty and essence of your family at the wonderful arboretums and public gardens in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Typically, we photograph at the Reeves Reed Arboretum in Summit, New Jersey, and The Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, Long Island. During spring, summer, and fall, there is always something magnificent in bloom.
Appointments are made over the phone to arrange a session, which generally takes one hour, or one hour and a half for larger groups.
Dana is a devoted mother and passionate photographer whose work emphasizes an intensity of emotion and a beguiling intimacy. She received her MFA from the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, and shows her work primarily through site-specific locations and university venues, such as University of California at Berkeley, University of Florida, University of Northern Iowa, and University of Alabama. Her public collections can be viewed at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, Massachusetts, the Kentuck Museum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
Unlike most portrait photographers, Dana focuses on capturing genuine,
natural, and distinct expressions, rather than the strained and frozen
smiles seen in typical family portraits. Instead of limiting the photographic
session to one fixed background, Dana prefers a more mobile approach,
allowing her subjects to interact with the environment in a variety of
settings that feature lush flower gardens, graceful old trees, open meadows,
and stone benches and stairways.Children inevitably loosen up in the freedom of the beautiful outdoors, and even the shyest, most notorious scowler will give the camera a sweet smile once Dana unleashes her special secret weapon -- the child wrangler!
All of Dana's child wranglers are trained in Music Together? classes, theatrical improvisation and clowning. As the children become relaxed and absorbed in the child wrangler's antics, Dana is able to move about and shoot freely and unobtrusively in order to get a wide range of spontaneous poses.
Dana shoots in ambient, natural light with a medium-format camera, using black and white film. The final prints are available in black and white, sepia tone, or hand-tinted color. The hand-tinting is created with oil paints applied directly to the surface of a sepia-toned photograph to give the final result a warm, old-fashioned and classic look. All the prints are archival (will last forever!) and printed on special, warm-tone watercolor-type paper. Every phase of the portrait's production is performed by our staff of professional artists in-house, by hand, in our studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Dana photographs children of all ages, including infants from around six months (or whenever they begin sitting up). Vintage Vignettes can make any type of portrait, from an individual child to an extended family reunion. Many of our clients also like to include their treasured family pets!
Occasionally, we will photograph inside your home or in our studio, but we prefer to capture the beauty and essence of your family at the wonderful arboretums and public gardens in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Typically, we photograph at the Reeves Reed Arboretum in Summit, New Jersey, and The Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, Long Island. During spring, summer, and fall, there is always something magnificent in bloom.
Appointments are made over the phone to arrange a session, which generally takes one hour, or one hour and a half for larger groups.
Dana is a devoted mother and passionate photographer whose work emphasizes an intensity of emotion and a beguiling intimacy. She received her MFA from the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, and shows her work primarily through site-specific locations and university venues, such as University of California at Berkeley, University of Florida, University of Northern Iowa, and University of Alabama. Her public collections can be viewed at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, Massachusetts, the Kentuck Museum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.