When they met, Tim Webb and Michele Simonsen discovered they shared a love of photography and filmmaking. Then Simonsen introduced Webb to Trininty River in Northern California, which inspired their latest show “Threshold: Over and Under Water Photography.”
The show includes water-themed photography by the Allan Hancock College film and video instructors taken over years of excursions exploring the beauty of light flowing through the water at the place where Simonsen grew up. Webb has been a full-time film and video instructor since 2002 and Simonsen is a part-time film and video instructor. Their colorful experiences with travel and photography and filmmaking had much to do with their latest show.
For Simonsen, Trinity River has always held a special draw, having spent much of her childhood years on the river where her parents purchased property.
Webb has always had a love of water. Born in Chicago but raised in Santa Barbara, Webb grew up surfing and diving the Central Coast, often capturing what he would see on film.
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The couple attended graduate school at San Francisco State University and collaborated on several films including a thesis, Nonessential Species, which chronicled the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park.
Often they’d take breaks from grad school and lose themselves in the tranquility of the Trinity River property taking dozens of photographs and exploring personal themes through portraiture and experimental photography.
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In 2000 after obtaining their graduate degrees, the couple taught at Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore, Southeast Asia’s only film school. While there, they explored many nearby islands and formed what would become a lasting interest in the effect of light and water. In Malaysia they first took their cameras into the water and began exploring the beauty of light flowing through water, and they took that experimentation with them when they returned to America in 2002 to the water of Trinity and other Northern California rivers.
In capturing their ethereal images, Webb uses natural light and a Nikonos III, an older 35mm underwater camera that uses both black and white and traditional color film, to capture the experimental underwater landscapes. The couple has spent countless hours under and over the river to capture otherworldly light and motion as Simonsen moves weightlessly in the cool waters.
The ongoing project has been a family affair since 2002 when the couple’s daughter, Ula, was born. The family makes a yearly pilgrimage to the Trinity, and Ula is a subject in many of the images.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone can be reached at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2011.