“I don’t say that I shoot a picture,” said photographer Margaret Casella, a resident of East Williston. “I feel that I make a picture.”
Casella has been a photographer, her studio located at 889 Broadway in Manhattan, for over 30 years on and off while taking care of her children. She said that it was when her children grew up and left the house that she was able to dig deeply into her work as a photographer, which led to experimentation of many kinds.
Casella’s photograph of paper coffee filters was selected for exhibition in the Heckscher Museum of Art’s Long Island Biennial, which will take place from Sept. 3 to Dec. 4 in Huntington.
Casella will also be one of the three speakers at the Long Island Biennial gallery talk, along with fellow exhibit artists Paul Farinacci and Margaret Minardi, discussing photography, her view on art and her creative process.
Casella first became interested in photography as a child when she was given her first camera by her parents. While her father was her first teacher in photography, she took her first photography course through the Great Neck Arts Center. She went on to study at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan for a few years but decided she wanted a degree. She earned a master’s degree in fine arts at Long Island University, where she was a graduate assistant to the chair of the department, Arthur Leipzig, for two years.
“With small children at home, I couldn’t do what was popular at the time, which was taking images of the homeless,” said Casella. “However, I said I have a kitchen and there are pictures that I can take of that.”
After experimenting with household items, Casella, a specialist in studio still life photography, moved on to paper. Casella mostly does photographs of paper for banks and investment firms, but in the 1990s, she released a book of black and white photographs of paper titled “Garbage or Art.”
“You handle paper all the time,’’ she said. “It’s so common. You can’t go through life without touching paper.”
Casella has also made a series of photographs of lighthouses, in which she experimented with emulsion transfers, a new technique in the early days of her career. Casella said that the emulsion transfers added an effect that made the images look as though they were moving.
Casella said, “I don’t believe in writer’s block or photographer’s block, or block in any artistic field. It’s an excuse. If I don’t feel particularly creative, I photograph anyways until something pops up and captures my attention.”
The Long Island Biennial gallery talk, followed by a meet and greet session, will be on Friday, Oct. 28, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Hecksher Museum of Art.
