Kristin L. Ware was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. She owes her love of art to her family. Her father, now a retired police officer from the City of Alexandria Police Department, started out in life as a painter who enjoyed acting in school plays and worked for a time at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Her mother, a longtime employee of the federal government, is an exceptional writer who taught her to draw. For as long as she can remember, Kristin has visited museums and galleries to learn about art and culture from around the globe.
Although Kristin has always been inspired by Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, and John Sexton, her passion for photography did not truly begin til she received her first point and shoot Kodak camera from her grandfather. Several hundred rolls of film, a couple of cameras, and two years in her high school darkroom later, Kristin was hooked. In her junior year, however, too much time spent in the darkroom led her grades to slip. She loved her art but she also knew that she wanted a lot from life which required a good college education. More than that, however, having mastered the fundamentals, she wanted the freedom to explore the world of photography in her own way. Kristin soon realized that she couldn’t do both, at least not well, and being a perfectionist, needed to make a very difficult decision. For more than a decade now, Kristin has devoted herself to the study of ancient cultures and civilizations, all the while pursuing her first love, the art of photography, outside the classroom and on her own terms.
In May of 2005, Kristin L. Ware graduated summa cum laude from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, with a major in Art History, specializing in Ancient Greece and Rome. She interned with Carol Mattusch, Mathy Professor of Art History, on the restoration, research, and exhibition of plaster casts on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her undergraduate honors thesis explored the meaning of the continuous Ionic frieze which adorns the interior colonnade of the Parthenon. Last spring, she received her Masters in Art History from The University of Texas at Austin. For her thesis, Kristin worked with the San Antonio Museum of Art’s collection of Greek vases in order to discover the relationship between iconography, text, and function in fifth century Greek vase painting. In addition, she collaborated with the Blanton Museum of Art, researching the William J. Battle Collection of Plaster Casts, and interned in the Photography Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, where she is currently employed in the Reading Room.
Although she does photograph in digital media, by and large, Kristin prefers traditional black and white film photography. Digital cameras and computer software such as Photoshop are great tools, she says, especially given the rising cost of film and limited darkroom resources. Thanks to the digital revolution, it is also much easier to fix mistakes and alter images, greatly improving the relationship between client and photographer. Kristin, however, prefers simplicity. She feels there is more of a connection between herself and what she is photographing because each shot is that much more precious. When you only have a certain number of frames, she says, you become keenly aware of what it is you are photographing.
It is perhaps little surprise that Kristin has recently become obsessed with toy cameras, especially the holga. She is enamored by the square format of the prints and the wonderful way in which the dark corners draw your eye inward. Being made of plastic and prone to light leaks, the temperamental nature of the holgas has become such an attraction to those artists who enjoy experimentation. For traditional landscape photographers like Kristin, who prefer simple techniques, their unpredictability makes getting the perfect shot all the more satisfying.
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