Artist statement: In this series, Small Animal, I arrange objects from my family garden, children’s books, and vintage identification guides into layered configurations. Each photograph looks at the natural world as if it were held just for our observation, suspended far from any recognizable landscape.
Amanda Tinker (b. 1974) was raised in New Jersey and currently works and resides outside of Philadelphia. She has been teaching the history of photography and 19th c. processes in Philadelphia, Pa, since 2001. In her process, Amanda uses large analogue cameras and 19th c. photographic techniques as a way of arranging elements from nature. She uses historic photographic processes to comment on a tenuous, local biodiversity and considers plants as worthy subjects in our current moment.
Amanda has exhibited in national and international exhibitions. Selected exhibitions include the Photography Gallery at the University of Notre Dame, The Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, Gallerie Lampinstrasse in Bielefeld, Germany and the Heilongjiang Art Museum in Harbin, China. Amanda has received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and two Window of Opportunity Grants from The Leeway Foundation.