Featured Artist: Rosemary Edwards

as told to Asha Iman Veal for Arts Alliance Illinois (June 2020)

photographs by Rosemary Edwards

Spider webs are something you don’t see until it becomes wet from morning dew. 

It’s like they magically appear everywhere, seeing all the lines that the spider has created for their web. 

Sunrise, to me is a sign of a new beginning of the day. I usually tell people, ‘The sun always rises east. If it doesn’t, something is wrong.’ For sunsets, at the end of the day, if something did not go good during this day tomorrow is a new chance.

/ Rosemary Edwards 

artist and photographer 

rosemaryedwardsphotography.com

www.instagram.com/rosemaryedwardsphoto

photographs by Rosemary Edwards

photographs by Rosemary Edwards

I have been living in the McHenry area for the past 25 years. My photographs are of various McHenry County Conservation districts. 

I go for my daily walks there. I look for something that people would normally miss when they go for a walk. Many would not wake up early enough to watch the sunrise. I take pictures of the sunrise to remind people that when the sun comes up, it’s a new day. 

I always go early in the morning...I try to go before the sun comes up. It’s usually when I am alone, which is nice. That is my time to be alone and think about many things that are going on with me and around me. Seeing things out in nature is something that brings tranquility to me. I go for walks all year around, yes, in the rain and snow! I have run into other photographers on the trail but not very often—maybe it's because I am there at the crack of dawn.  

photographs by Rosemary Edwards

photographs by Rosemary Edwards

I become very excited when I see any kind of animals—they are not easy to photograph because most of the time they stay for a bit before they run. 

Sometimes I wonder if they think I don’t see them, then they realize and run away. Snapping turtles are probably the easiest animal to take pictures of because they just stay and tuck their heads inside their shell. Taking pictures of animals requires patience—especially birds that do not stay still.

photographs by Rosemary Edwards

My mom was an artist. I could never stay still as a child, so my mom gave me art supplies to keep me quiet and busy. My mom worked in various mediums such as drawing, printing, painting, paper making, and sculpting. 

I still remember when my fourth grade teacher showed our class a slide show of his photographs that he took from his trips. I loved how the pictures looked, so I asked for a camera when I got home. My mom gave me my older sister’s camera that hadn’t been used much. I took so many different pictures. In school, I took photography class for a quarter when I was older in seventh grade. Then I took photography again during my senior year of high school, and that’s when I really began to love the work. 

My mom, who was a student at a college for a degree in art, said to me, ‘You have a better eye in photography than I do. Keep it up!’ So I kept going but did not really take it too seriously during my twenties. After my mom passed away, I pretty much put my art and photography on the shelf for many years although I did take a lot of pictures of my sons and family. 

I went back to school when my oldest son graduated from high school. I took digital photography classes, and that is when my passion in photography came back. Upon my therapist suggestion, I started going for my morning walk with my camera in 2018 and became more serious with my photography.

I love showing the beauty of nature to remind there is still something beautiful out there even though whatever we are going though. 

When I’m taking pictures, I try to think how I can frame the focal point best. I hope the pictures are in focus—because there have been times where I thought an image I took was in focus, but then I realize it was not even in focus when I uploaded the pictures on the computer!

It is a dream of mine to have an exhibition of my work.