Meet Kay Kenny | Fine arts photographer, painter, and photography teacher.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kay Kenny and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kay, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
Creating a fine art portfolio can go in two directions: catering the the economics of making a very salable body of work that fits in with the current styles in the realm of home/office decor or choose the higher risk of making work that might challenge the norm. The possibility of making more challenging fine art also holds the chance for greater success. Those tea leaves: what will be the next big thing, in the fine arts world, are much harder to read. As some one who has been making fine art for decades, coming close, at times to being recognized as a successful risk-taker, I have occasionally just wanted to make simple decorative images that would sell well, I cannot do it- the risk itself is what I crave-making art that is challenging and difficult to create.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My introduction to the fine arts world of art making came on the heels of the reality that I could never be satisfied as a commercial artist, As someone who planned to do just that, I’m glad I learned the skills, but equally glad that I had the opportunity to reassess my undergraduate training in design and illustration and go back to graduate school as a painter/photographer. It was never easy- finding a way to support myself meant a lot of dreadful jobs (probably most of them will be done by AI in the future.) eventually, I was hired by NYU and ICP to teach photography-both appointments coming, by the way of friends recommending me. From the beginning, I was never interested in “straight” photography, as define by photos taken with little post-processing. The personal images that floated to the forefront of my thoughts were always part photo part painting. Before photoshop, I used a lot of non-silver early processes, such as gum bichromate, that allowed- me to combine the and re-invent the photograph to tell stories-strange narratives with text. Digital allowed me to push the photographic image further into the realm of surrealistic images-especially night long exposure images that touch on the dreamlike poetry of a world which cannot be seen yet remains familiar. When I first began to explore the photograph as a medium, straight photography, B&W was the only accepted approach- oh, how times have changed! !

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Not going to recommend any food, drink or historical mansion, but of course, I’d take them to the Morgan Library, the new wave of Tribeca art galleries, then on to the Joyce Theater for fantastic dance performances. If the visitor is a photographer, we’d be exploring the lower east side with our cameras and hunting down some good night photo opportunities in Central Park and Coney Island.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’ve been part of some groups throughout my entire career- the men and women artists who I have organized with and worked with-creating exhibits, critiquing each other’s work, sharing information- all of those artists matter. The some artists who truly stand out: the third grade teacher who encouraged me to be an artist, the college professor who lured me into the medium of photography, and finally the artist Mariette Pathy Allen, who’s bold photography with the Trans community long before it was a hot corner in the fine arts field, was a great example of artists who create art based on their on sense of mission as well as art making. Now-a-days, there is also the MidHudson Professional Women Photographers Collective- only few years old but busy,busy,busy providing support and opportunities for each other.

Website: https://www.kaykenny.com

Instagram: kaykennyphotography

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kay.kenny.5/

Image Credits
All Photographs are by Kay kenny