Anne Reavely, a first year student at Tallahassee Community College, spends her free time capturing photos of her environment around her. She is a Communications major, transferring into Florida State University. Reavely sat down with a member of The Talon to share a little bit about what photography means to her.
Reavely said what interests her most about photography is how engaging it is, as an observer.
Anne Reavely
“For me, I like how engaging it is. I have to really focus on the types of techniques I’m using. It’s a kind of a way to zone out from everything else. I feel like I’m a pretty observant person and I capture things that some people miss, which I kinda like about it.”
Reavely acquired her first professional camera as a gift.
Anne Reavely
“I always kind of liked taking pictures, but I got my first camera as a gift for Christmas and I just kind of went around like my neighborhood and started taking pictures and I took a photography class in my high school. So, I learned some things about editing and aperture and shutter speed and things like that.”
Reavely attended a high school trip to South Africa where she was one of the designated “story tellers” using photography as her medium.
Anne Reavely
“Yeah, I’ve been taking pictures a while before I took that trip, but it’s been kind of known by the faculty (of my high school) that I’ve been taking pictures. So, one of the things that the trips have are storytellers and you can do it through video or pictures, and they asked me if I wanted to be one of the storytellers because of the pictures I taken. So, you know, on that trip, I got to take pictures in Kruger National Park (of) all the animals that we saw, officials in Cape Town, and take pictures of all the landscapes there and everything.”
An accidental long-aperture photo helped her realize that she can manipulate photos however she wants
Anne Reavely
“I had my camera for a while, but I was just taking (pictures) with the auto setting, seeing what I could find. But my dad got me a tripod for Christmas, so you can take long aperture photos at night to let the light in; I was taking one of our Christmas tree but I kind of moved it slightly and it created this whole squiggly line and I don’t know why, but that one just kind of stuck out in my mind, like I really like this, I want to see what else I can do, like what else I can kind of manipulate to my picture.”
She takes inspiration from other female photographers, such as Vivian Meyer.
Anne Reavely
“I really take inspiration from what’s around me when I have my camera and I go out and I just try and find something that captures my eye or different angle. I also look at other people’s photos. I went and saw Annie Leibovitz speak, and she’s really famous for portraits; I’m not that great at portraits, I like landscapes and taking pictures of animals but I really look up to her work. Another photographer, my favorite photographer, is Vivian Meyer. No one even knew that she was a photographer. She was a nanny in Chicago, and she passed away and this person found all these pictures in a storage unit (of hers that went off for) auction. Then her all pictures ended up in a museum because they’re fantastic, but no one even knew she was taking them. They’re just very simple but beautiful at the same time.”
Reavely’s favorite work holds a special place in her heart and hits close to home.
Anne Reavely
“I have a couple of favorite pieces, like making triptychs, where you take like two or three of the pictures that are kind of similar, but they can really bachelor and you make them. I made one of my grandma before she passed away and I think that’s one of my favorite ones, (it) just kind of showed her like in her kind of last few weeks. So, that’s special to me.”
Some of Reavely’s works are shown below:
