ABOUT US
Artist's Statement
Come, slow down with me ...
Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" was introduced to me as teenager, and I have spent countless hours studying that piece and absorbing all of it.
What is the barmaid thinking? What about the man in the top hat? What does the trapeze artist wearing green shoes do when she's not at work? ... And things such as that.
Édouard Manet (1832-1883), A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), oil on canvas, The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust © The Courtauld
When I'm roaming I ponder the things "in the corners" of life ... the things that are overlooked. Although life can be mundane and even routine, it can also be interesting.
I look up at ceilings and into the sky, or down on the ground to stop and see what was put there with intention but is now overlooked. When I find that thing, that amazingly interesting but otherwise unseen thing, I turn off my power wheelchair... and wait. Because I'm no longer strong enough to hold my camera to my eye, I use my its tilting screen as the viewfinder while I leave my camera on my leg and angle the lens towards the thing you sped right past.
Capturing that instant is alchemy, as the movement and speed of life is forever held still. I first felt it in a photographic darkroom when film, paper, chemicals, and the perfect amount of light at just the right time brought an image to life.
Our Artist
Heather C. Markham grew up in a nomadic military family and frequent moves gave her an eye for spotting opportunities in new situations, honed her keen attention to detail, and developed in her a hunger for exploration. She applied these skills to her love of photography—cultivated in her since she was 10 years of age—eventually dedicating herself to using her craft to reveal the unseen in her subjects.
With over four decades behind the lens, Heather C. Markham has captured images with nearly every camera imaginable. This stunning self-portrait, a 1992 gem, was crafted in a Tampa building's mirror-like facade. Shot with her grandfather's cherished Mikita 35mm, she was the third generation to use the beauty and thrilled to have this photo turn out so perfectly.
Though enamored with darkroom alchemy, she made the transition to digital cameras in 2000, adapting to meet the challenges that muscular dystrophy presented in her photographic journey.
In 2002, Heather was diagnosed with Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy and began using a power wheelchair in 2008. Brushing aside the label “disabled photographer” she says that her power wheelchair impacts how she moves through and views the world, providing a steady surface from which to capture it as she shoots from her lap.
Her portfolio is comprised of a wide variety of subjects, but she loves to capture wild birds—herons mostly—in various states of…being herons. In addition to wildlife, her photographic genres include portraiture, street photography, documentary reportage, and architecture. Heather has exhibited photographs in juried shows internationally, including in galleries in the Budapest, Rome, Barcelona, Athens and the United Kingdom, as well as in the US.
Beyond her life as a photographer, Heather is an engineer, assistive technology professional, educator, ADA architectural barriers specialist, former Ms. Wheelchair Kentucky, golfer, competitive ParaSurfer, public speaker, and published author. Having roamed the country for nearly 50 years, with stops in Texas, Florida, New Mexico, Kentucky, California and Pennsylvania, Heather settled in Phoenix, Arizona in 2020. She married her high school sweetheart in 2024 and they relocated to the heart of Arizona wine country. She and her husband share their home with a deaf Maine coon cat and a deaf Dachshund mutt.
pc: Adrianne Darling