After I completed my BFA in photography at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 1985, I worked in New York City as a commercial and editorial photographer. In 1997, I moved to Austin, TX and shifted the direction of my work to examinations of nature, and held two solo exhibitions of my studies of vines. From there I traveled to Japan and spent two and a half years working on a group of photographs based on my foreigner's perspective of nature in urban Kyoto. In the spring of 2005, this work culminated in two solo exhibitions held in Kyoto galleries. In these shows, I presented my perspective of Kyoto, not as a town of pristine temples, but instead finding beauty in everyday scenes on the streets.

I continued in this vein after returning to the US, with a solo exhibition in September 2006, "Succulent Mailboxes; Nature in My Suburban Neighborhood," at the A/B Gallery in conjunction with Off-Axis, a citywide exposition of contemporary arts in Santa Barbara, California. In May-June 2007, I exhibited my work in "Encroachments; Interpretations of Landscape"  at Art Resources in Santa Barbara.

From July through October 2007, my photographs were part of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art's exhibition "Made in Santa Barbara."  My work was chosen for the annual "Small Images," show in the Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, which ran from November 9 through December 7.  In December 2007, my solo show, "Here, There and Back Again; Photographs from Texas, Japan and California," was at the Faulkner East Gallery in Santa Barbara.

For an exhibition in Spring 2008, ten photographers including myself, were asked to document local workers by the Santa Barbara Arts Commission. The show, "The Essential Worker," is at the Channing Peake Gallery from March 3 through June 27.  My goal for this project was to capture the beauty of car wash attendants at work amidst the water, reflective surfaces of the cars, the machinery and carefully disposed of grime.  Photographing them was a little like capturing athletes in action, with the peak moments repeated as they worked the same tasks on one automobile after another.

I have participated in a variety of other group shows; at the Honen-in Temple and Ishida Taiseisha Gallery in Kyoto, and in California at the Women's Center at the University of California, the Friends Gallery, the Jewish Federation and with the f/9 photographers' Cooperative.

Santa Barbara Photographer Kate Connell: (805)708-8058, kate@kateconnell.com