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Matinee: 'Photographer Pam Ponce'
9 March 2024
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 543rd in our series of Saturday matinees today: Photographer Pam Ponce.
In this 6:23 video from Joshua Evans, former pediatrician turned photographer Pam Ponce talks about her years documenting the movement and erosion of sand along Virginia's Eastern Shore.
The occasion was Movement & Light: The Barrier Islands of Virginia, her fourth environmental show, at Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center last summer.
She spent several seasons photographing the Virginia Nature Conservancy’s Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve, an environmental treasure of barrier islands and lagoon landscapes off Virginia's Eastern Shore. The 40,000-acre reserve provides a vital habitat for many birds and marine species while protecting coastal communities from storm surges and flooding.
The reserve has become a laboratory where scientists from universities and government agencies partner with The Nature Conservancy to study coastal processes. They work to save species, restore oysters and eelgrass beds, prevent habitat loss, and develop models for adapting to climate change.
After a year of research, Ponce finally visited the islands and was knocked over by the quality of light. What had started as an environmental project became a personal quest to capture the changing light, taking her from documentary photography to fine art.
"I think everybody has to find a place that is special to them," she says. And, she points out, they often don't have to go far.