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With a darkroom in her basement and a camera in her hand, Francine was instilled with the love and the excitement of photography, by her father, at the extremely young age of five. As a young child, she saw her surroundings through the lens of her camera. For many years she captured the world without any formal training. She loved being in her darkroom where she developed her own negatives and prints, using black and white film and some color. Creative expression was encouraged in her in other areas as well. As a young girl, she danced at “Brooklyn Academy of Music” and “Carnegie Hall”, performing ballet and jazz.
A graduate of Hunter College, of the City of New York, with a Master’s of Science Degree, she taught Elementary and Middle School for more than 30 years in New York and Florida. She incorporated creative photography into the curriculum wherever she taught. After retiring from teaching, she started taking formal photography classes called “The Fine Art of Seeing”. She learned that fine photography involves not only an appropriate camera, but an imagination in experience, “a seer seeing the seen.” She read about the various forms of photography as well as other artists and their forms of the art. She was very happy in this element.
Francine’s fine art work is created in her mind, before lifting the camera, by visualizing the final image. She finds her inspirations from the world surrounding her in all of its various orientations. Her different point of views, are like the “road not taken”. Thinking outside the box, she takes chances and has fun. Her images reflect her emotional expressions. She loves the natural beauty found in nature, wildlife, landscapes and the human form. Francine studies light and contrast as well as the natural design of her subject. Once satisfied with her image, and transported to the computer, not much is done to the actual image. Francine is a “purist” in this respect, and prefers to keep the final image as close to its original state of “beauty” as when found in nature.
She presently collects, raises and photographs about 200 orchids on her patio in her South Florida home, where she lives with her husband, Robert, of 42 years. Her photographic work has been purchased at private showings and art galleries. She simultaneously designs and creates Dichroic glass jewelry and does Glass-making as well.
Artist Statement
I’ve often asked myself why I chose photography as an art? What is it that gives me so much satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment? For me there was more than one reason. At times, I want to make a memory timeless. I want it preserved forever. At other times, I want to have the opportunity to learn a new skill, practice it and help others learn it. I get satisfaction from taking risks in producing images and having a positive feeling of success as my reward when it works. It may not work, but that’s the chance I take too. Finally, my photographs tell others about myself. We are what we photograph. It is my way of being in this world. It is my way of putting creativity in our lives.
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