Willie Anne Wright (; born 1924)Wright, Willie Anne. VMFA Virginia Artist File. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. is an American photographer best known for her colorful cibachrome and grayscale Pinhole Photography.

Biography

Willie Anne Wright was born Willie Anna Boschen, in Richmond, Virginia. Her father was a musician and sometime-artist. She graduated from the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public university, public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III of England, William III and Queen ...

in 1945 with a BS in Psychology, and from

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...

in 1964 with an MFA in Painting. Wright notes that William & Mary fine arts professor Thomas Thorne was particularly influential to her as an undergraduate, both by providing access to art supplies during wartime and by selecting two of her watercolors to be exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in a 1944 exhibition. She later studied at the Maine photographic workshops in Rockport, Maine and the

Visual Studies Workshop Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) is a non-profit organization dedicated to art education based in Rochester, New York, in the Susan B. Anthony House, Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood. VSW supports makers and interpreters of images through education, pu ...

in Rochester, New York. She married John “Jack” Wright Jr. and had three children.

Career

Wright began her artistic career as a painter, teaching art classes at the Jewish Community Center, and was influenced by one of her painting instructors, Theresa Pollak. For a while, she experimented with printmaking. By 1973, she began to focus more and more on photography. Inspired by her surroundings and personal life, her first works incorporated images of her family, friends, and Civil War reenactors. Well known for her use of the old technique of

pinhole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of e ...

, she is also an exceptional master in lensless photography, solar printing, and

photogram A photogram is a Photography, photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The usual result is a negative shadow im ...

s. Some of her more well known works include her "Civil War Redux" series, which focuses on local Civil War reenactors whom she followed around for several years, her "Pregnant Women" series, which features pregnant friends of hers, and "The Swimmer" series, which features women lounging by poolsides or in pools. In 2023 the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibited a retrospective of her work entitled ''Willie Anne Wright: Artist and Alchemist''.

Technique

Wright first experimented with pinhole photography in 1985. For a class project she had to create and use a pinhole camera. She used Cibachrome paper for use in a sixteen by twenty inch pinhole camera. With color-correcting filters she created wide-angle color prints by placing the pinhole close to the film plane. Her images were whimsical with bright colors and a vignette border.

Collections

Wright's work is held in the following public collections: *

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the supp ...

. * Chrysler Museum of Art. *

Mary Baldwin University Mary Baldwin University (MBU, formerly Mary Baldwin College) is a private university in Staunton, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1842 as "Augusta Female Seminary". Today, Mary Baldwin University is home to the Mary Baldwin College fo ...

Walter Cecil Rawls Library and Museum
Courtland, VA * Mariners' Museum. * Southeast Museum of Photography *

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

New Orleans Museum of Art The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest art museum, fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans. It is situated within City Park (New Orleans), City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton ...

. *

Longwood University Longwood University is a public university in Farmville, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1839 as Farmville Female Seminary and colloquially known as Longwood or Longwood College, it is the third-oldest public university in Virginia and one of ...

. *

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

. *

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...

References

External links

Artist Profile: Willie Anne Wright
video at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Civil War Redux: Pinhole Photographs of Re-enactments, by Willie Anne Wright , Ester Knows All Things VCUarts

Summary of the Willie Ann Wright photographs, 1983 , Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Willie Ann 1924 births Living people 20th-century American photographers College of William & Mary alumni Virginia Commonwealth University alumni 21st-century American photographers Artists from Richmond, Virginia Photographers from Virginia Visual Studies Workshop alumni 20th-century American women photographers 21st-century American women photographers