By Sona Schmidt-Harris | [email protected]

“My children aren't afraid to tell me that my photographs are ‘boring,’” Camille Wheatley joked. “I am drawn to the quiet, understated moments in our surroundings. I give the seemingly boring a second chance, allowing viewers to take a second look at what is often misrepresented as dull.”

Holladay Artist of the Month Camille Wheatley is drawn to details. This, in part, is because she is a licensed architect. One of her favorite classes while obtaining her architecture degree was architectural photography, which led to a life as a photographer.  

“My photographic passion lies in finding beauty in the banal, seeking majesty in the mundane and discovering the divine in the otherwise dull details of life,” she said.  

As a mother of four, her photographs are taken with her iPhone because sometimes she has “the blink of an eye to snap a shot of an intriguing moment that captures my attention, before one (or more) of my children is pulling me away from said intriguing moment.” 

Not only does she use an iPhone to take her photographs, she also does no editing whatsoever. “What you see is what you get in my moment of seeing something,” she said.

She has had a couple of works exhibited at the Springville Museum of Art in the Annual Spiritual and Religious Art Show. One of these photographs included, “Light as Divided by Darkness.” The title is borrowed from the Book of Genesis 1:4 which states, “God divided the light from the darkness.”

“My photograph captures a moment depicting a mass of darkness dominating a lighter portion that is subdivided by dark gridlines. Part of the intrigue lies in trying to figure out what this unedited photograph is actually portraying. From what darkness and light did I extract this illustrative photograph?” she said.

Outside of the spiritual dimensions of her photographs, Wheatley believes that photography and architecture go “hand in hand.” “The same sensibilities that accompany good architecture are manifested in good photography: composition; spatial awareness; the presence of and utilization of light; careful attention to subject matter; lines; etc.”

Her carefully constructed photographs will be on display at Holladay City Hall in the main foyer throughout November at 4580 S. 2300 East.  

If you would like to learn more about Wheatley’s photography, visit her Instagram account @saltandwheat.

If you would like to nominate a Holladay resident for Artist of the Month, please visit https://holladayarts.org/suggest-an-artist

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