Gallery Displays the Portraits of a Lady
Englishwoman's Photos Help Celebrate History
By Tara Mack
It was the historical richness of the landscape that intrigued her Wherever she went in Scotland, it seemed an ancient castle was just up the road. And every village had a church, cemetery or cathedral that might be hundreds of years old.
But the same character of the Scottish landscape that inspired Catriona Fraser's photographs also made it difficult for her to sell her pictures in Scotland. Who needs a photo of a castle when you can go outside and see the real thing?
She found a more receptive audience in the United States, where she discovered that people were thirsty for a sense of history.
Fraser, who lives in Dumfries, made enough to open her own Georgetown gallery, which recently celebrated its first anniversary. For only the second time since it opened, the Fraser Gallery is exhibiting her own work, the black-and-white portraits of castles and cemeteries that brought her here in the first place. The show opened yesterday.
The 25-year-old Englishwoman started out in Scotland making portraits of children, and in her free time she photographed landscapes with infrared film. The film registers heat rather than light, giving her pictures an eerie, ethereal glow. Ordinary black-and-white photos looked dull in comparison, she said.
Her gallery, on 31st Street NW, usually features artists who sell their work on the outdoor art fair circuit, the place where Fraser found her own commercial success. Most Washington galleries would turn up their nose at the watercolor landscapes and charcoal portraits that populate these festivals, and her gallery, Fraser said. But Fraser said she wants to carry work that is accessible.
"A lot of the work [in Washington galleries] I couldn't see people buying for their homes," she said, sitting behind the small desk in a corner of her gallery. A gallery "shouldn't be an intimidating place. It should be a retail space."
The Fraser Gallery has yet to turn a profit. Fraser said she thought sales would be better since she was working with artists who had been successful at the art fairs. Fraser said she was surprised by how much money she lost this year, but added that she never expected the venture to make her rich.
Her photography earns her enough money to run the gallery, she said, and the gallery gives her a sense of independence and creative control.
She moved to the United States in 1994, after finding her work was better received here. It was a professional as well as quality-of-life decision.
"Over there I had to chop wood for a fire every morning," she said. "Over here I have a remote-controlled fireplace. I just click a switch, and I have flames."
Fraser spends most of her time these days running the gallery and attending art fairs, with little time for making pictures. She has returned to Scotland only twice this year.
Still, Fraser said she will continue to return to capture the
landscape in the ghostly light of the infrared camera while she
waits for the reputation of her gallery to grow.
© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
