Karen Flanagan McCarthy

Karen Flanagan McCarthy is an Ottawa-based photographer whose love affair with capturing images began when she received her first camera  – a Kodak Brownie Chiquita – for her 8th birthday.

Karen has integrated photography into every aspect of her life: as a student (currently enrolled in the certificate program at the School of Photographic Arts: Ottawa);  as a volunteer photographer for the Shelter Valley Folk Festival and at other fundraising events for local charities, and in her professional life.

Karen established her own communications company, McCarthy Media Group, after a couple of decades working at CBC Radio and TV, most of that time as an on-air reporter. The business suits and high heels are usually left hanging in the closet these days, as she dons steel toe work boots and a hard hat to photograph the construction of a 10-storey building in downtown Hull for one of her clients.

When she’s not photographing heavy machinery and skilled trades people at work, she can often be found on or near the Ottawa River, a place that continues to inspire her as a photographer, especially in the winter. This exhibition, Fugitive States, brings together her exploration of the abstract images and landscapes that are created and revealed when the temperatures drop far below zero.

“There is something special about the diffuse nature of winter’s light…and the patterns that form on the surface of the river as it freezes or on the glass canvas of my kitchen window when the temperature falls below zero…But they don’t last. And there is no second chance. I cannot return another day to try and capture these fleeting images. They’re gone forever.” explains McCarthy.

Karen’s photographs have been published in Photo Life, Ottawa Magazine, Folk Prints, Maclean’s Magazine, the Globe and Mail and the National Gallery of Canada’s magazine, Vernissage.

For more information about Karen and her work, visit her Web site at http://www.kfmphotography.com/