Penny Ashford
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Penny Ashford is a photographer known for her fine art and documentary work, often focusing on environmental and social issues. Her portfolio is celebrated for its unique ability to capture both the aesthetic and emotional dimensions of her subjects.
Ashford’s travels have profoundly influenced her photography, taking her to diverse locations around the globe, including the North Pole, Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, Australia, and Africa. Each of these destinations has enriched her perspective and contributed to her distinctive style.
Her recent journey to La Palma marked an exciting new chapter, highlighting her interest in astrophotography. La Palma is renowned for its clear, unpolluted skies. The island’s location in the Atlantic Ocean and its low levels of light pollution create ideal conditions for observing and photographing celestial events.
Water, as a recurring theme in her work, continues to play a significant role, seamlessly integrating into her projects regardless of location, as evidenced this show.
Education
International Center of Photography Classwork- 2010-2015
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA BA, 1986, Art History
Noble and Greenough School, Dedham, MA 1982
Known for her underwater camera work that transforms the traditional horizon line into a fluid moving plane that upends expectations, in the past few years, Ashford has experienced her own upending. On a journey to Antarctica to explore the interplay between water and ice, Ashford came face to face with the effects of climate change.
Eager to capture the beauty as a call to action, Ashford's work took on new meaning and urgency. She traveled to the North Pole and later to the archipelagos of Svalbard where she witness the dramatic effects of melting polar ice. This new work also explores abstract forms with biomorphic structure and composition, capturing these floating polar jewels before they disappear.
On her most recent expedition, she hoped to photograph baby polar bears. On a trip to the Arctic one year ago, she saw thirty three polar bears, some healthy, others gaunt. One year later, she only saw six, one of them alone on a small island, climbing a mountain to eat a bird and its eggs—not normal polar bear behavior, but the actions of a species desperate to survive.
Despite the shock of this devastating loss of ice and habitat, Ashford's overarching message is one of hope and beauty. Just as her subjects transformed her everyday actions to those that sustain life, she hopes that her photographs empower viewers to see themselves as stewards of the earth, that they, too, take positive action to preserve the great beauty of our planet.
Ashford graduated from Mount Holyoke College and studied at the International Center for Photography in New York. Her work has been exhibited at the Page Bond Galley, Richmond,VA, Artful Living, Washington, DC, the Newport Art Museum, Coleman Center of Education, Newport, RI , Cade Tompkins Gallery, Providence, RI, and The Antique and Artisan Gallery, Stamford, CT, as well as galleries throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic.
Exhibitions
2021 Jessica Hagan Fine Art & Design Fall Exhibition
2020 Newport Art Museum Biennial
2019 Memorial Sloan Kettering Koch Center Art Walk, NYC
2019 Exhibition at the Brownstones, Red Bank, NJ
2019 Memorial Sloan Kettering Koch Center - Permanent Collection
2019 Memorial Sloan Kettering Nassau Art Walk and Permanent Collection
2018 Solo Show on The Journey from the Arctic to Antarctica, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA July 12- August 31st
2018 Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, NYC - Permeant Collection
2018 View Find 7, Group show, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
2017 Cat Perkins, Southport, Ct
2017 Sunni Spencer, New York, NY
2016 United Stares Naval Observatory, Home of the Vice President
2016 Sea Star Beachware, Southampton, New York
2016 Reflections of Nature , with Sunny Goode, Artful Living, Washington, DC
2015 Refresh, Group show, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
2015 Spirit of Water, with Brooks Melly, Antique and Artisan Gallery, Stamford, CT
2012 Cade Tompkins Project at Swifty’s, New York, NY
2012 Arthamptons Fair, Cade Tompkins Project, Bridgehampton, NY
2011 Next Air Fair, Cade Tompkins Project, Chicago, IL
2011 Pulse: Late Night at the New World Symphony with Anne Patterson
2010 Elements of Nature, w/ Anne Patterson, Cade Tompkins Project, Providence, RI
2010 Picturing an Ethical Economy, Trinity Wall Street New York, NY
2010 Newport Art Museum Coleman Center for Creative Studies, Newport, RI
2010 Pink is the New Black, Cade Tompkins Projects, Providence, RI
2009 Editions Artist Book Fair, Cade Tompkins Project, New York, NY
2009 Photographs of Ethiopia, Save the Children, Gallery R’Pure, New York, NY Blog Featured
2019 Town Square Delaware
2018 Style Weekly, Richmond, Virginia
2018 Artsy Featured Gallery 2015 Tory Burch Daily Blog, To Do: Spirit of Water at the Antique and Artisan Gallery
2015 Hanover Avenue- Spot Light on Penny Ashford, - Design Interview, -Buying Guide: Orange Dining Room, - Shop/Art
2015 The Stylistic Blog, Ann Ainsley
2012 Tory Burch Daily Blog, Meet the Photographer, Penny Ashford