Ongoing Series

“Beaches and Water”

Artist Statement by Alison Bixby

I have lived near water since 1989 and traveled to places by lakes, rivers and oceans over my lifetime. I have always wished to create interesting, peaceful images to express the feelings of serenity and solace that I find when I am by the water. For this series, I used my camera to escape the routines of everyday life. Breathing the fresh air by the water, listening to the tree branches rustling in the wind and stepping away from the city’s traffic noise makes me feel comforted and connected to nature.

This series began with my photographs of Montrose Beach in September 2006, after the local Chicago beaches were closed to swimmers for the off-season. I especially enjoyed soaking in the calm of the mostly empty sand along with the cooler temperatures. My collection includes traditional film and digital images of my favorite trees by the Chicago lakefront, the Chicago River with city skyline, the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park, scenes from the Chicago Air and Water Show, the Indiana Dunes, Niagara Falls and beaches in Illinois, Michigan and Hawaii.

Since moving to Chicago in 1999, I have lived in several buildings located within bicycling and walking distance to Lake Michigan, and for several years I had a view of the lake from a high-rise building. In New York City, all of my apartments were located close to the East River for ten years after college. An influence on my affinity toward walking by the water may have been my childhood annual vacations spent at the beach in New Jersey and at lakeside towns in CT and NY.

My subjects are combinations of color, light, shadow, air, earth and water. These images were taken using many different cameras: Canon SD800 IS, Canon Elph and Canon 5D Mark II digital cameras, plus more recently using my cell phones, including iPhone series 5 through 13, Samsung Flip Z3 and LG V20 phones. My older square, traditional color photographs were shot on 2¼ negatives using a Yashica 124-G camera. Many of the images from my Beaches and Water series show trees by the lakefront in Chicago or beaches along Lake Michigan in IL, IN and MI, and along the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii.