Today we’d like to introduce you to Patricia Houghton Clarke.
Hi Patricia, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Travel. Social Justice. Art. Family. Community. These are the pillars of my life and my imagery. The middle daughter of eight girls growing up in the Los Feliz and Hollywood hills, I spent a lot of time on my own wandering the hillsides. I loved long walks, fairy tales, and my microscope. I received my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, when I was 10 years old, which began a lifetime fascination for imagery of all kinds. In my teens and early 20s, I immersed myself in various art forms and travel. My then-husband and I chose to leave the country very early in our marriage, and during our first 2 and a half year international sojourn, I studied Batik in a small bamboo hut in Java for three months. Upon returning to the US I taught Batik, had two beautiful babies and we co-founded an affordable housing nonprofit. This pursuit of travel, social justice and art has continued unabated ever since.
My formal training has been exclusively in painting and drawing; I am a self-taught photographer. My earliest influences as a child were the National Geographic and books featuring Renaissance painters. Rembrandt was my favorite; I could look at his paintings and his use of light for hours at a time. I always had a camera nearby but didn’t realize until much later that photography would become the art form that would be my most authentic voice. Through my camera lens, I can speak about issues that are important to me: human nature, justice, our environment and beauty. Throw in a little magic and a sense of wonder, and I am metaphorically and physically in my element.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I was very fortunate to be born into a stable family environment, with siblings and parents who gave me a solid and loving foundation. We were exposed to the arts and culture that was available to us in Los Angeles, which cemented in me a deep love for the city and its people. I have had a very adventurous life, which, in addition to the many gifts and wonderful experiences I have had, have included battling several tropical diseases, experiencing extreme travel hardships, a house fire, divorce, and surgeries. As difficult as these were, they informed me. They showed me a much fuller picture of the human experience; they deepened my compassion, understanding, and curiosity – and gave me strength.
Launching my full-time photography career is a direct outgrowth of a failed back surgery, which left me incapacitated and unable to carry any physical weight for a very long time. I was unable to return to my day job as the Executive Director of a non-profit organization, and I was left without a clue as to how to move forward until I realized that I could at least carry my Holga.
I slowly and carefully began to travel again: my first expedition back into the world was to shoot my first series, “Correspondences,” in Southeast Asia in 2006. This body of work was a low-tech exploration of the changes occurring in the world through the simple lens of a plastic camera.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My feelings about what I observe, the composition, and the light inspire how I receive imagery. I do my best to get out of the way and let wonder come through; sometimes, the photographs are as I imagined and sometimes, they arrive as a complete surprise. Whether I am photographing people, or street scenes, or landscapes, the feeling is always the same.
I recently exhibited a very personal body of work at Silo118 in Santa Barbara titled “Primal Wild,” a series of black and white and also color analog images shot in the redwood forests of California. I journeyed to these groves over a period of eight years, seeking solace in a challenging world. I imagine I will continue these expeditions in the years to come and will see and feel something extraordinary every time.
I was very fortunate to be in Santa Barbara during Barack Obama’s 2007 campaign and was able to photograph him at a small rally held at the local City College. After his subsequent win in 2008, I flew to Chicago to be at Grant Park on Election Day; I was thrilled to be a witness to these historic events and to document them for posterity. I am honored that a large selection of these images is in the permanent Obama Presidential Library housed at the National Archives and will also be a part of the UCSB Special Collections next year.
My work has included several collaborative projects, including my Southeast Asian series. “Correspondences“ is a poetry and photography
collaboration with poet Santa Barbara poet Ellen Chavez Kelley; “Erasing Lines” was a multi-year portrait collaboration with performance/visual artist Stuart Carey, featuring the drag community of Santa Barbara; and for the past several years, “Facing Ourselves”, which is an award-winning international project bridging community, art and integration.
With the support of Silo118 gallery in Santa Barbara, during the pandemic lockdown I self-published a book, Facing Ourselves: Reckoning as a fundraising tool for social justice. To date we have raised funds for the ACLU, the Vermont Haiti Project, the Storyteller Children’s Center, and Human Rights Watch. Proceeds from the sale of this book currently benefit Greenpeace.
As we move into more and more challenging times with worldwide migration at the forefront, I believe we need to focus time and attention on merging cultures and how to create sustainable and humane communities for the future. Begun in 2016, “Facing Ourselves” began in a tiny Italian village where I had been an Artist Resident several years before. With communities represented in large-scale outdoor portraiture in southern Italy, London, and most recently in Carpinteria, California, these images and community interaction seek to represent the commonalities of human nature and personal dignity. The portrait sittings, conversations and community organization have created a “ripple effect” that has gone far beyond the images.
“Facing Ourselves: A Family Story” is the fourth suite of this ongoing project, a multi-year collaborative photographic exploration of my own family; of issues pertaining to race, gender, equity and the creation of healthy communities and families. This story is a microcosm of every family story; including tales of innocence, hope, despair, separation, struggle, joy, and ultimately love and connection.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Early in my travel days, I was afraid to fly. And then one day, I had a little talk with myself: Do you want to travel? Yes. Are you willing to do what it takes to get from one place to another? Yes. Then, if you want to travel, you have to accept the risks of flying – or taking scary buses – or funky trains – or ride in the back of a truck for 4 months – otherwise, stay home.
From that little conversation with myself until this day, I am no longer afraid of flying, I take funky buses and I would definitely take a funky train. I’ve done the 4 months in the back of a truck crossing from London to Nairobi – and I don’t need to do it again. But I’m so glad I did, and those months crossing the African continent changed my life forever. Every day there opened my eyes in new ways, and I realized that I could physically transmit what I was seeing and feeling through the lens. I hold that perspective close to my heart every time I pick up a camera.
I know that every time I step out the door, I take a risk of the unknown; my life as I know it in the morning could be completely different by the end of the day. The rewards of taking risks – whether traveling, or having children, or putting my imagery out in public – have always been well worth it, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Expect the unexpected.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.
patriciahoughtonclarke.com and https://www.patriciaclarkestudio.com - Instagram: @pcphotog
- Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/ patriciahoughtonclarke. photography - Youtube: https://www.youtube.
com/channel/UCS1wcbhCDZCR2qy- NGbQzgg/videos
Image Credits
(c) Patricia Houghton Clarke
