Sylvia is an explorer at heart and grounded in the natural world. She often travels by motorcycle or explores with no specific plan – taking the world as it comes. This allows her to capture spontaneously the images that catch her eye. For Sylvia, the grace of the natural world is a necessary escape to rejuvenate her spirits and keep the difficulties of our world in perspective. Her imagery is rooted in this escape into sanity, drawing on her inquisitive nature and background in the sciences.

She loves the process of finding images in the field and bringing them to life in the darkroom, and most recently in the digital darkroom. Artistically influenced by the abstraction and contrast in the work of Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, and Edward Weston and the form and color of the early 20th century European modernists, Sylvia merges these ideas into her work.

Primarily self-taught, Sylvia’s images are unified by form, contrast, and color; the relationship of people and objects to their environment; and the surprise and joy in the world in which we live.

Her work is in private collections, on music book covers and has been used in New Mexico Magazine, Albuquerque the Magazine, Road Trip, Cycle News, The Rio Rancho Observer and the Albuquerque Journal.

Exhibitions and Awards

Abstractions - Images of the Natural World, a solo exhibition at the 14th Street Gallery, Plano, Texas. February 2 - March 21, 2008.

High and Dry, November 16, 2007 - January 18, 2008 - International Cultural Center, Texas Tech University

Give Us Your Best Shot, January 10 - February 10, 2007, Benham Gallery, Seattle, WA

High and Dry, Honorable Mention, November 10, 2006 - January 17, 2007, International Cultural Center, Texas Tech University

National Photography '06 Exhibition, October 26, 2006 - November 26, 2006, The Main Street Gallery, Groton, NY

Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards 2006, Honorable Mention

Biennial Southwest, September 10, 2006 - January 7, 2007, The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM (catalog available)

Gateway to Imagination, May 6 - July 15, 2006, Farmington Museum at Gateway Park, Farmington, NM

Not to Scale, April 19 - May 28, 2006, Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA

All contents © Sylvia Crain
Unauthorized reproduction or use of these images is strictly forbidden.