Wendy Garfinkel-Gold
On September 12, 2014, I transformed my creative focus from graphic design to portrait and fine art photography. I am based in Athens, GA (east of Atlanta, GA). Fascinated with visual art and expression & movement in dance, my artistic nature began in childhood. I was deeply affected by still images from magazines that spread information about the far-off war in Vietnam, the MoMA photography show called The Family of Man by Steichen, the shock of a Diane Arbus monograph as well as fashion photographers Scavullo and Avedon. Growing up in Charleston, SC I was exposed to the fullness and depth of creative possibilities when I saw stage productions during the annual Spoleto Festival. I was hooked when I saw how a photo came to life in a development tray during summer camp for young artists in my junior year of high school at the Atlanta College of Art.
Today I reside in Athens, GA where I have worked steadily in the photography medium since 2014. Prior to that, I was an award-winning graphic designer for over 20 years. I was educated at RISD, NYU, and The University of the Arts. I have always practiced and experimented with photography as an art form for many decades prior and today I am able to devote myself full-time to my artistic efforts. My background has always been in the visual arts and I have degrees from: The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), New York University (NYU Tisch), and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA.
Wendy Garfinkel Biography
Wendy Garfinkel is an artistic photographer in Athens, GA. She studied photo and film from 1980-82 at RISD, and NYU, and a BFA in film, in 1984. She attended the University of the Arts in graphic design graduating with honors in 1994. Wendy received an Alling & Cory Paper award and was nominated for a school-wide Alexander Award. Design work was published in various books including Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces by Philip B. Meggs. Garfinkel exhibited at Pittsburgh Filmmakers 1997-98 and was in a group show Tones at the Silver Eye Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, 1998. Best in Show and a Gold Award for the art direction of Facet, a monthly newsletter for the Georgia Museum of Art in 2012.
Logo work was published in LogoLounge Master Library 1, 2 & 3 and LogoLounge 2,3 & 5 by Bill Gardner, a Graphis Gold Award in 2008, published in Graphis Logo Design 7, and work published in 1,000 Greetings by Peter King and Co. Group shows in 2012: iPhoneography: Updated Visual Dialogs at Lunch Box Gallery in Miami, FL, Ways of Seeing: Phoneography at the Rebekah Jacob Gallery, Charleston, SC and The App Wars: Instagram Vs. Hipstamatic at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA. Solo show Farmington Gallery, Athens, GA, May 2017. Person/Place/Thing at Spruill Gallery, Atlanta, GA, September 2021, Pin-Up Holiday Event, Eyedrum Gallery/Print Club of Georgia, Atlanta, GA, December 2021, Members’ Showcase ATHICA Gallery, Athens, GA, February 2023 and The 48th Juried Exhibition at Lyndon House Gallery, Athens, GA, March 2023, merit award.
Artist Statement
I am particularly interested in our internal emotional lives in connection to our external environment. I consider the human form, symbolically, as a medium that contains this mysterious psyche and I seek to communicate this private, interior world outwardly. In creating a visual narrative or dramatic persona for my subject, I emotively define this hidden world as a state of being. Through choreographed figurative and spatial relationships, I define these characteristics to my audience. In the process of creating my arrangements, composing every detail, utilizing existing sought-out environments or fabricated installations in the search to visually define that which is abstract and indescribable in words alone is paramount.
Finally, I compose my photographs from this intentional stage, with the use of symbolic color, emotive lighting, and a very purposeful perspective to connect the subject and audience in an internal dialogue that reveals the most existential inquiries.