Local Photographer Exhibits Polaroid Transfer Prints

BRIDGEWATER - Pastel streetscapes, colourful fishing boats, bronzed skin wrapped in oranges and yellows - all set on a backdrop of turquoise water and bright blue skies.

These are just a few of the images that captured Mary Dixon's imagination during her visits to the Caribbean over the past decade.

"Immediately, you see that the colours there are a lot bolder than we have here the types of colours are different, too. They have lots of hot pinks, oranges, turquoises and bright greens that you don't see here," said the Bridgewater photographer.

"We might think colours that look perfect down there are inappropriate, whereas in the tropics it's part of the landscape. It feeds off the colours of the water, the fruit, the flowers and the hot sun. It just all seems to work."

Mary Dixon prepares a photograph for her exhibit in Halifax this month.

Ms Dixon's work will be featured through April 27 at Halifax's Viewpoint Gallery.

"I like hands-on photography. I like manipulating the print and taking it a step beyond what the actual photograph is. In this case, I decided to work with Polaroid transfer technique."

Depending on how it's used, this allows her to create wrinkly-like textures or to mute the colours and augment them with pastels, coloured pencils or watercolours.

"I like working with the colours and I like doing the colouring. Maybe I'm a frustrated artist or painter," laughed the three-time Bridgewater Photographic Society Photographer of the Year.

"I play off the windy or watery techniques to make use of the wrinkles so they'd make sense in the pictures if it was a more muted scene, like if you were looking at weathered buildings or boats, then I'd use the other technique."

To see Tropicana, visit Viewpoint Gallery at 2050 Gottingen Street in Halifax on Wednesdays through Sundays from noon until 5 p.m.

For more information, visit Ms Dixon's web site at www.marydixon.com.