Paula Chamlee

"My work could be categorized as 'straight' although for me, a photograph must reach beyond depicting the reality of subject matter and touch a resonant chord through its abstracted arrangement of space and form. My photographs are on a fine line between recognizable subject matter and total abstraction."
-Paula Chamlee

Though Paula Chamlee initially began her career as a painter in the 1980s, she has worked as a photographer since 1990. Primarily self-taught, she works with large view cameras to photograph in black and white while making contact prints on silver chloride contact printing paper. Chamlee photographs a wide variety of subject matter, however, she concentrates on the natural landscape, portraits, and interiors.

Chamlee has published her work in a number of books. In 1994, Chamlee’s first book, Natural Connections: Photographs by Paula Chamlee, which focused on the natural landscape, was published. That same year, she began a two-year project in which she photographed and wrote about the farm in Texas where she grew up. The undertaking culminated in her second book, High Plains Farm, published in 1996. Afterwards, Chamlee examined small, family-owned markets in her third book, San Francisco: Twenty Corner Markets and One in the Middle of the Block, published in 1997.

She then left the United States to travel Europe where she spent a great amount of time exploring and photographing the Tuscan landscape in Italy with her husband, photographer Michael A. Smith. Her experiences and photographs from her multi-year trip were then collected in two books published in 2004: Tuscany: Wandering the Back Roads, Volume I and Madonnina. Chamlee has also completed a collaborative series of still lifes with Smith titled, The Bonsai of Longwood Gardens. Her other photographic excursions have been in Baja, California, and Iceland.

A recipient of the Leeway Grant in the Arts for Excellence in Photography, Chamlee’s photographs are in over twenty-five museum collections in the United States, as well as numerous collections, both public and private, internationally.

Chamlee has exhibited her work at the Michener Art Museum a number of times including in the exhibitions entitled Shifting Ground: Contemporary Landscape by Paula Chamlee, Alan Goldstein and Paul Matthews, (2009) and Creative Hand, Discerning Heart: Form, Rhythm and Song, Part Two (2013).

Education and Training
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, 1963-1965
B.F.A. in Painting, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, 1988
Self-taught as a photographer

Teachers and Influences
Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Vasily Kandinsky, Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Weston, Michael A. Smith

Connection to Bucks County
Paula Chamlee moved from Alabama to Bucks County in 1990, where she still lives. She married photographer Michael A. Smith the same year.

Colleagues and Affiliations
Chamlee and her husband travel together to photograph various parts of the United States as well as several international locations including the Czech Republic, Italy, and Iceland.

Major Solo Exhibitions
Townhouse Gallery, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, 1988
Eastern Shore Art Center, Fairhope, Alabama, 1989
Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, Mobile, Alabama, 1990
The Keepers of Light: A Gallery of Photography, Mobile, Alabama, 1990
Michener Art Museum with Michael A. Smith, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1992
Books and Books with Michael A. Smith, Coral Gables, Florida, 1995
Photographic Archives Gallery, Dallas, Texas, 1995
Amarillo Museum of Art, Texas, 1996
Center for Contemporary Arts, Abilene, Texas, 1997
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1997
Museum of the Llano Estacado, Wayland University, Plainview, Texas, 1997
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, 1997
Scott Nichols Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1997
Stauth Memorial Museum, Montezuma, Kansas, 1998
Paris Square Gibson Museum, Great Falls, Montana, 1998
Coutts Memorial Museum of Art, El Dorado, Kansas, 1998
Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas, 1998
Institute of Texan Cultures, San Antonio, Texas, 1999
Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, 1999
Open Lens Gallery, YM/YWHA, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2002
Paul Paletti Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky, 2003
Alone and Together with Michael A. Smith, Travis Gallery, Solebury, Pennsylvania, 2003
De Santos Gallery with Michael A. Smith, Houston, Texas, 2004
Aughinbaugh Gallery with Michael A. Smith, Missiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania, 2004
Gallery 339 with Michael A. Smith, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2005
High Plains Farm, Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, Austin, Texas, 2007
Point Light Gallery with Michael A. Smith, Sydney, Australia, 2007
Camera Obscura Gallery with Michael A. Smith, Denver, Colorado, 2007
798 Photo Gallery with Michael A. Smith, Beijing, China

Major Group Exhibitions
September Celebration, Mobile, Alabama, 1988
Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, Alabama, 1989
M.C. Farmer Terminal Building, Mobile Municipal Airport, Mobile, Alabama, 1989
Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1992
Gallery 312, Chicago, Illinois, 1994
American Association of Museums Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington, 1994
Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, Alabama, and Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama, 1995
Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1997
Legacy Gallery, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1997
Eight Elm Film and Video, Toronto, Canada, 1997
Photography: Contemporary Prospects 2000, Yellow Springs, Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, 2000
The Big Picture: Ultra Large-Format Photograph, Salt Lake Art Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2000
Signs of Faith: Photographs from the Collection, Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas, 2001
Large Format Photography in New Mexico, Then and Now, Magnifico Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2002
The Great American West: The Black and White Landscape, Brigham City Museum, Brigham City, Utah, 2002
American Landscape Photography After Ansel Adams, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, 2003
The Auroral Light: Photographs by Women from Grolier Club Member Collections, The Grolier Club, New York, New York, 2003
Hortulus animae: Il roseto de Santa Caterina e l'arte contemporanea, Eremo de Santa Caterina, Isola d'Elba, Italy, 2003
Shifting Ground: Contemporary Landscapes by Paula Chamlee, Alan Goldstein and Paul Matthews, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, 2008-2009
Parting Gifts: Artists Honor Bruce Katsiff, Director/CEO, 1989-2012, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, 2012
Creative Hand, Discerning Heart: Form, Rhythm, Song, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, 2013
Death of Impressionism?, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, 2016
Polaris, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, 2017

Major Collections
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
Cray Research, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas
Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Maitland Art Center, Maitland, Florida
Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Houson, Texas
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
St. Petersburg Museum of Art, St. Petersburg, Florida
The Buhl Collection, New York, New York
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas

Published Books and Portfolios
Natural Connections: Photographs by Paula Chamlee, includes essay by Estelle Jussin, 1995
High Plains Farm: Paula Chamlee, includes foreword by George F. Thompson, 1996
High Plains Farm: A Unique Portfolio, portfolio of original photographs, 1996
San Francisco: Twenty Corner Markets and One in the Middle of the Block, 1997
San Francisco: Twenty Corner Markets and One in the Middle of the Block, portfolio of original photographs, 1997
A Field in Tuscany, portfolio of original photographs, 2000
Tuscany, Wandering the Back Roads, Volume I, includes essay by Robert Sobieszek, 2004
Madonnina, includes foreword by Steven Maklansky and essay by Giuliana Bianchi Galeri, 2004

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Instructor in Photography, Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, Alabama, 1988-1989
Workshop, Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, Alabama, 1989
Workshop, Leinkauf School, Mobile, Alabama, 1989
Instructor in Photography, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1992
Co-conducted workshop with Michael A. Smith at Academy of Film and Photography, Prague, Czech Republic, 1994
Conducted workshops with Michael A. Smith in various locations, including Australia, Utah, Germany, Maryland, California, and locally in Ottsville, Pennsylvania, 1999-2007

Major Awards
The Summerlee Foundation Grant, 1995
Texas Historical Foundation Grant, 1995
The Leeway Foundation Grant for Excellence in Photography, 1996

Affiliations and Memberships
Board of Advisors, Art and The Alabama Woman, Mobile, Alabama, 1986-1989
Advisory Board of the American Sport Art Museum and Archives, United States Sports Academy, Daphne, Alabama, 1989