Pinky Bass and The Magic of the Camera: An artist's journey behind the lens

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — A new artist has joined the International Arts Center gallery on the Troy Campus.

Artist Pinky Bass shows how art isn’t just the end result, but the process and equipment needed to build it. Her newest collection, “Pinky Bass: The Magic of the Camera,” reveals how a simple lens can change a whole canvas and a viewer’s perception.

“A person can look at it and think it means this or it means that,” Bass said. “In other words, its got the dichotomy of meaning.

“You bring yourself to it rather than me dictating to you what you are seeing. That, to me, is really important when I do imagery. If I make a photograph and make a mistake in it, I find that to be the most wonderful surprise, because it gives me an idea.

“I literally poured Clorox on a photograph one time and stopped it at the right moment and I thought ‘I can do this all the time. I don’t have to have a straight photograph.’ So I like making mistakes and finding out things that way.”

Bass also touches on her favorite creations that used her camera method and how it affected the scope of the artwork.

“What I like was I just got whatever camera I could find and played with it,” said Pinky. “So this was a little plastic camera that had four holes in it, four lenses. And when you click the picture on a 120 film, it would give you four little tiny pictures.

“So this one little tiny picture of my daughter and it looks like she’s floating above the Gulf. Actually her husband was holding her up, but she’s floating above. She’s pregnant. I mean it was just this magic little tiny piece of film. And I was able to play with it, blow it up, get large and then write a story about it.”

While Bass often begins with a specific goal in mind, the camera helps create results that are both experimental and beautiful.

“Although this point in my time, I am not doing this straight photography that someone would consider a photographer,” said Pinky.

“I’m stitching on photographs, I’m ripping them up, I’m using alternative processes of all kind. So basically, what I am is a creative maybe that is looking for a voice. And I’m always looking for the new experience. I always want the new thing to happen: new ideas, new thoughts, I’m looking for new ways of looking at the world and how things progress.”

Bass’s collection will be displayed now until Nov. 15 at the IAC.