Miramichi Photographer Finalist in Alberta Competition

Exposure: Calgary Banff Canmore Photography Festival is a registered non-profit established in 2004 by the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies to encourage the broader Calgary-Banff- Canmore community to consciously examine, question, and appreciate the medium of photography.

Each year they have a competition to name Alberta's top emerging photographer.  Rachael Flett, daughter of  Ernest and Germaine Flett of Derby Junction, is named of one of the finalists in the competition.  The winner will be chosen by online voting.

VOTE HERE

Rachael graduated from MVHS in 2001, and from UNB in 2005 with honours in Psychology. Most recently she graduated from the NB College of Craft and Design with a diploma in Fine Art Photography in 2011.

Rachael Flett’s fine art work is inspired by her love for medium format photography. Everything about 120mm film inspires her - the camera, the light metre, the square image. She loves developing film and watching images come to life in the darkroom. Rachael has a trunk full of vintage dresses and suitcases in case an opportunity for a photo shoot arises. Her work is now being recognized in her chosen medium: photography. In the fall of 2010 she was published in PhotoLife magazine, Ones to Watch: Emerging Photographers, and was also included in B&W & Color magazine’s 2011 Color Portfolio Awards.

I've been in Alberta for 2.5 years. I'm just starting to get back into photography again. I've only really ever shot for people who have asked and didn't really push it because I wasn't ready to commit to living in one place...but am more actively searching for work now to start a career here in Calgary. I wasn't really able to commit to it before, as I was living in Edmonton and knew I didn't want to be there.

My true photography love however, is film/darkroom work. It's magic!! I feel like an actual photographer because I have to rely on a light-metre for exposing and my own skills at developing the images and not losing the roll.

The photos featured below were shot with a 6x6 film camera.  It's a medium Rachael likes.

Digital is fun b/c you can run around and shooting wildly if you really want to and then delete photos you don't want. Not advised....but Film however, is a whole different ball-game. When you only have 12 frames of 120mm per roll, you must carefully compose each image. I do not crop my negatives in the darkroom. I compose as perfectly as I can in camera, making sure the light is hitting the subject's face just right, and that there's good use of space and a sense of balance. I make sure the image looks completely 'comfortable' with no distracting, unrelated elements before I press the shutter button.

The model in the photos below is Rachael's best friend Crystal Cameron.

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