Photo by Colleen Hennessy

Inspired by the works of Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, Giorgio de Chirico and Remedios Varo, Loretta Young-Gautier developed an early fascination with Surrealism. Darkroom manipulation became the focus in her work in photography while studying with Denver photographers Ronald W. Wohlauer and Ray Whiting in the early 1980s. A later workshop with multiple image master Jerry N. Uelsmann inspired further exploration.

Through multiple exposures, negative sandwiching, combination printing and other techniques, she has created images in both the camera and the darkroom and has recently begun exploring digital manipulation. Sometimes taking weeks to create a single image, her work is produced in a limited edition of hand-printed archival silver gelatin prints and/or carbon-pigment inkjet prints.

Photographs by Loretta Young-Gautier have been shown in numerous group and solo shows and are part of private, corporate and museum collections nationwide. Her images have appeared in Photo Review, Icon, Masterpiece Magazine, The Photographers Market and Passion Press. A Colorado native, Loretta is currently associate director of The Camera Obscura Gallery in Denver. She lives in Indian Hills, Colorado.

Artist Statement:

My work explores the utopian vision of the mind's eye - a subliminal place which transcends physical boundaries and provides boundless opportunities for self-exploration and discovery, and connection to outer, higher creative energy. Using photography's intrinsic credibility, I strive to create believable tableaux which represent the idyllic and sometimes forbidding world within imagination.
Drawing upon myth, symbolism and legend, I hope to tap into the collective unconscious and take the viewer on this both introspective and cosmic journey…to where anything is possible.