Judy Villa knew it was something special the minute she came upon it.
Walking through the aftermath at ground zero of the Whittier Fire, which burned more than 18,000 acres in 20 days, Villa knew there was something remarkable about the skinny purple blossom.
“It stood all alone in the field,” she said. “I just turned my camera on its side and leaned on my ear to shoot.”
The photo, Out of the Ashes, recently won first place in the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature’s 10th annual photography competition. The theme for this year was Nature Regenerated, and featured the work of dozens of local photographers utilizing their art to explore themes of survival and rebirth in the aftermath of a devastating natural disaster. The museum encouraged photographers to explore the process of regeneration as thousands of acres of landscape began the slow process of healing from a series of fires that raced through Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties in 2017.
Other winners in the adult category included Elliot Lowndes, who nabbed second place, and Robert Houtchens, who received third place. For the junior category (photographers 18 and under), Ali Stein took first prize, Quinn Stacey won second, and Georgia Miller nabbed third place.
For Villa, the nature-themed contest was a perfect assignment. Always the family photographer, she spends a lot of time touring galleries and museums with her husband, Theodore Villa, an acclaimed artist himself. But she didn’t jump into the art world right away. Villa spent 30 years working in business before retiring to focus on her photography.
“I absorbed a lot of knowledge about color, design, and composition over my many years,” she said. ” My husband supported me by presenting me with the best in equipment. We travel together looking for interesting photo subjects.”
Since giving up the corporate world for art, Villa has had a string of accolades and successful shows including Art From the Groves, a juried show at the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art. She is also a member of the Santa Barbara Art Association and has work displayed in the Faulkner Gallery in Santa Barbara as well as the Semana Nautica Art Show. This is the fourth time she has participated in the Wildling’s photography competition.
“The Wildling and I are a good match,” she said. “I have always loved observing and being inspired by the ever-changing beauty of nature. … The Wildling competition gives me a great incentive each year to get outside into nature and to find several interesting representations of the theme.”
Armed with a Nikon 7100 and her preferred 105mm and 40mm, Villa’s approach to nature photography is patience and practice. She trains her eye to look for the impossible details, things that may be overlooked by the average eye.
For this year’s competition, Villa sought to capture the regrowth at Camp Whittier, an area that saw rampant destruction during the blaze. She walked away with two images she submitted to the competition, Out of the Ashes and Reborn.
“Whittier had a good selection of regrowth and was fairly easy to access,” Villa said. “I shot several photos of struggling live oak trees but the close-up of the one sprout coming out of the textured trunk, Reborn, seemed most appropriate for the theme of nature regenerating.”
Although she shoots digitally, Villa eschews heavy computer manipulation of her work, letting the image she’s captured speak for itself. She said her inspiration comes in close-up, capturing the diverse textures and designs in the natural world.
Bill Dewey, the judge for this year’s contest, was especially struck by Villa’s work. Dewey is a seasoned aerial photographer whose work was recently featured in a Wildling show called Overview. Dewey was struck by the diversity of entries and how different artists perceived and interpreted the theme. What especially stuck out to him about Villa’s winning work was the unique perspective it offered.
“One of the stunning parts of this image is the way she uses radical vertical crop to bring the visual interest to the viewer,” Dewey explained about Out of the Ashes. “She exploits the composition in a really effective manner, with the way she places the flower in that certain part of the frame that really draws your attention to it.”
What particularly set the image apart was Villa’s use of background. Just beyond the bright green and purple color of the flower is a murky gray cloud, ominously hovering over the tiny flower struggling to grow. Villa’s statement is subtle but powerful, as she captures a fragile world constantly clinging to the edge between birth and destruction.
“It makes the image pop,” Dewey said. “All these things come together to create a really strong image.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose needs to regenerate. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 23-30, 2018.
