Sapphire magazine Diana Harding Tucker

       he mountain peaks create a jagged horizon across a scenic panorama, but a closer look reveals much more in
       one of the works created by Cookstown photographer Diana Harding Tucker.
       The print is a black and white landscape of a mountain range in California with a placid lake ringed by a rock face cut with crags and cliffs. But the subtle shifts in colour reveal a much more complex and detailed work of art. The trees have a tinge of dark green that is barely noticable but compliment the vista of gray and black.
The green wasn`t in the original print of course - Diana put it there later using a technique were she paints in the colour by hand.
Colour in her work is used sparingly, where she needs it to be and where she is inspired to enhance a print.
``I don`t like colour photography. It doesn`t do anything for me,`` she explains. ``I have to bring it out myself,`` she says of her style of creating her work.
Her journey as a photographer began early in life when growing up on a farm in Quebec. Though members of her family
had roots in science related vocations - her grandfather was a physician, her mother holds a degree in chemistry - they also had an artistic side that took various forms.
``This probably had an influence on making me the type of artist that I am,`` Diana says. ``Photography is a wonderful mix of science and art.``
After graduating from Queens University with degrees in psychology and English as well as Studio Art, Diana found herself living in California in the late 1980`s near the Sierra Nevada mountain range. She was inspired by the peaks that surrounded Carson City.
She was a classical musician at the time, but after borrowing a camera she began to capture the landscapes of the nearby area.

She was influenced by Ansel Adams, the famed landscape photographer who captured much of the rugged scenery of the American west.
``I took my portfolio to the Rochester Institute of Technology and they accepted me into second year. The training was so good that after a year I went back to Toronto and did theatre photography for several years.``
She began to experiment with different styles and designs, exploring what can be done with light and shadow.
But it was the experimenting with colour and pastels on the black and white prints that created a niche for her in her work.
``I started having my own solo shows in Quebec. People liked my work and began buying it.`` she explains. The experience furthered her creative side and she delved into producing the type of work that has captured the interest of so many people.

Working primarily with black and white negative film, she photographs landscapes, outdoor scenes and works in a studio setting.
Playing with light, shape, shadow and contrast, Diana recreates scenes of natural beauty or creates scenes of still life where form and design are limited only by her desire for a perfect harmony in the final print.
Her work, she says, is inspired in part, or at least she`s feels an artistic kinship with Pablo Picasso and Paul Cezanne.
``Picasso`s pears and Cezanne`s bottles inspired my first still life.``

Since moving to Cookstown, Diana has been actively involved in the local art scene.
She curated the first juried art exhibition at the Gibson Cultural Centre in Alliston as a director of the New Teumseth and Area Arts Council. (now the South Simcoe Arts Council) and has been involved in several art projects and exhibitions in the region with more coming in the near future.

She is a member of the Society of Canadian Artists and the Ontario Society of Artists - of which she has recently completed as term as president. That included organizing major shows and exhibits
in and around the Toronto area.

From there she develops the film and creates a print - but only after carefully manipulating and experimenting in the darkroom to produce a final version that has the desired contrast and depth.
It is the next step in the creative process that produces a unique form of art. Diana uses coloured pencils and sometimes pastels to create the colour she wants on each print. Sometimes the colour is a subtle enhancement of a portion of the print, other times it is a bolder statement.
The result is an image that actually transcends just a two dimensional work and creates a thought provoking scene where the viewer is drawn in to a sometimes mystic world were colour is fleeting and dances only on the edge of a white, grey and black canvas of light.

To date, her work has been shown in many print publications - too many to list here - and her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries both as a solo artist as well as part of group exhibitions and many private collections including the Governor of Ontario Art Collection in the provincial archives.
She also is affiliated with and has work on permanent display in several galleries around Ontario and in Quebec.

As with most artists, her work is a continually evolving process that is highly personal.
``With my photography, I have to put more into it than just the image,`` she explains. ``There`s more information in there than the photograph gives me, so that`s why I colour. At least that`s one explanation.``
Some of Diana`s work is currently on display at the Cookstown Antique Market Barn on Highway 27, just north of Cookstown.
For more information on her work you can contact Diana via email at: heka@sympatico.ca
or see some more of her work on line at the Win Henstock Gallery website at www.winhenstockgallery.com.