|
Rebecca Bloom
 Photographers
Rebecca Bloom - Therapist Turned Photographer
Biography:
Rebecca Bloom, the gifted photographer responsible for all the landscapes on this site, actually started out as a physical therapist. However, while in college in Boston, she had a spare elective in an intensive PT program. To lighten the load, she opted for an "easy" elective - a black and white photography course. She was always the "image historian" at parties and such, so this was a good match. It'd be a break from the courses like Neuroanatomy and she knew she had a slight interest as an amateur hobbyist. Little did she know it would change her life! Rebecca, not even owning a "real" camera, borrowed a Minolta X-700 35mm camera from her mother to fulfill the course requirements. During this "easy" course in college, Rebecca hovered towards filling her very first portfolio with waterfalls. She liked the creativity in being able to control the look and feel of the water flowing. So, she got hooked. She found her passion for landscapes... well, at least for waterscapes anyway. For the record, she got an 'A'. In fact, here is a very neat and historical document showing what a good doobie she was in class! (I love embarassing her like this!) The image to the right is a sample from Rebecca's very first portfolio... ever. Pretty good, but she's really come a long way! Because her mother was tired of not having a camera around the house and since Rebecca seemed to take to photography anyway, her mother decided to buy her a camera for Christmas in 1991. After the success of her easy elective, she opted to further pursue photography by taking a color course. Here she explored self-portraits, different types of lighting, and really started realizing that this "hobby" was becoming important to her. But then there was that PT thing... that was what was really driving her at the time. That and a 1982 Toyota Celica which actually is shown in the image to right. This was her self-portrait for the class... she's that tiny speck in the right hand corner of the rear view mirror (magnifying glass not included). She choose this composition for her self-portrait because she had been spending an enormous amount of time in her car going back to New Hampshire for ski weekends - another passion. Her final color portfolio for this class was gathered in Colorado while interviewing for PT jobs... kind of ironic. This solidified her love for nature and capturing it on film. And so it began... Post-College: The New England Years Longing for the west (namely Colorado), Rebecca decided to take a job in... Maine?!?! Momentary lapse of reason, I suppose. This era was not exactly a photography-intensive time, as Rebecca focused mostly on riding her road bike and skiing every weekend in the winter. Photography more or less took a back shelf in her closet of life. To further her career as a physical therapist, Rebecca decided to leave Maine behind for... Massachusetts?!?! OK, the "living in the west" thing was still an inkling in her mind, but it would have to wait. Again, while in Massachusetts, she parked the camera for her interests in cycling and skiing. After a while, she found an even better job in... New Hampshire?!?! This therapist position focused more on sports injuries, her specialty. So, the move back to the home land of New Hampshire was a must. The west would have to wait... again. However, while in New Hampshire, one of her patients mentioned a two-year certificate course on photography at the nearby Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences. All of those pent up photography notions came flooding forth and Rebecca signed up. Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences Rebecca took the first course at the institute in black and white photography, studying under Mark Fernald. It was in this class that Rebecca was first introduced to large format 4x5 photography. Throughout the various courses covering lighting, color, studio portraits, and film processing, Rebecca really knew this was something she wanted to do for the rest of her life. The dream of being a professional photographer first started forming in this time of her life. She made a few lifelong friends in these courses, people who shared her passion for photography. Her mentor Mark and fellow classmate Sheila really encouraged her. They would critique each others work in the true interest in furthering their art and skills. Without their support, Rebecca may not have taken the plunge in getting a 4x5 view camera. It is also during this time that we started dating... which may not seem relevant... but that had something to do with the long desired migration west. The image on the left is a black and white image from her portfolio at the Manchester Institute. It is an image that still to this day puzzles us. Being home from graduate school, I went with Rebecca to photograph some waterfalls in southern New Hampshire. We discovered this area where a small ancient granite boulder was precariously balanced on another larger granite boulder with a nice small waterfall in the background. I was stunned and amazed... this doesn't exactly occur in New England... balancing rocks. To this day, we still have no idea why or how this rock was so balanced. One theory we have is bored aliens looking for cheap thrills. Another is perfect alignment of gravitational forces culminating at this location precisely when we had a camera there. But let it be known this image was not altered in any way... no photoshop, no editing, just natural. And we have a live witness... Mark Fernald also saw this rock balanced. When Mark returned a few weeks later, it was knocked over. So, it remains a mystery. Strange... cue the freaky music... The image on the right was taken by Rebecca with her Minolta 9-xi 35mm camera at Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah. I spent some time in Arizona working on my thesis experiment at Arizona State University and needed to go back to my university in New York to start writing my thesis. I invited Rebecca to fly out to Arizona and drive cross country with me back to the east coast. We made a vacation out of it and stopped at several national parks. That trip sealed her fate as a photographer. She shot 42 rolls of film in one week! I introduced her to backcountry hiking on this trip at Bryce in one of the worst weather hikes I've ever been on. She stuck it out though and as I told her 'this is as bad as it gets' (it snowed and rained most of the hike), she was asking if we could hike again on the cross-country trip. Rebecca got hooked on hiking and made it her mission in life to bring images from the backcountry to those who are not able to see them. There are many people in the world unable to hike into remote areas. They range from people simply not knowing how to survive in the backcountry to people incapacitated by health limitations. Then there are those who can but choose not to go without the creature comforts of a bathroom, shower, nice meals, tap water, etc. It takes a real desire to get into the wilderness and to be able to get back! It is for all of these people, that Rebecca strives to bring beautiful images to the world. It is also for those that venture into the deep wilderness of the world - to bring back memories and perhaps to inspire those people to continue their explorations of nature. This mission and nature itself is what keeps us inspired. Go West: The Arizona Years Well, it finally happened. After graduation and dating Rebecca for a year or so, I took a faculty research associate position at Arizona State University. I asked Rebecca to come with me, knowing that this long-time friend and now girlfriend was the one for me (we met in high school). She said yes without hesitation and off we went to settle in Scottsdale, Arizona. During our first year in Arizona, we spent every weekend exploring this incredible state. Rebecca was finally out west and loving every second of it. We hiked a lot and of course took the cameras everywhere. Rebecca, still a physical therapist worked at a variety of places in the Phoenix valley and was becoming frustrated with the healthcare system. She was finding that photography was her true love and calling and seemingly should be her career for the rest of her life. We got married after I proposed to her in the backcountry of Capitol Reef National Park. We bought a house in the Phoenix area and presto we were Arizonans. We live in the outskirts of the metro area in a convenient location for storm chasing. We got completely hooked on capturing lightning in the Arizona monsoons. We upgraded Rebecca's photography equipment and today we plan special trips specifically geared towards hiking and capturing natural landscapes. We completed a five-day backcountry trip into the Grand Canyon in July of 2001 with my father. The three of us had a life changing experience down there. We have an intense respect and admiration for nature and a true sense of personal accomplishment and understanding after an extremely strenuous hike. These images show some of the experiences from that adventure. Now Rebecca has gone to part time physical therapy. She has focused much more time on her photography and this site, BloomPhoto.com, came into being. Her dream is simply be a photographer... and it is finally coming true. These images are offered because of her desire for this art form and her desire to share it with the world. Now she is making it a career and what better career decision than to do something you love and make enough to live. We hope you enjoy her images and we hope it inspires you. Stay with us through the years, as this site and Rebecca's images will no doubt evolve with whatever nature supplies us. Thank you for your interest and patronage.Keith and Rebecca
|
