{"id":1837,"date":"2017-10-24T11:43:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T18:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=1837"},"modified":"2025-07-08T12:35:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:35:34","slug":"amy-caterina-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/amy-caterina-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Palomar professor’s work featured in photography show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amy Caterina went all the way to Iceland to bring home a pair of Polaroids on display Oct. 27-29 in Medium Festival of Photography\u2019s \u201cSize Matters\u201d exhibition.<\/p>\n

SAN MARCOS \u2014 When the photographic elite of San Diego descend on Bankers Hill for the Medium Festival of Photography on Oct. 28, two of the images on the wall will be staring back from a winter landscape in Iceland.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Palomar College photography professor Amy Caterina found herself in January, Polaroid camera in hand, trying to capture the snow and the mountains and the fjord at her feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been so fearful,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI\u2019d never travelled internationally by myself before. And then I had to go make pictures\u2014good pictures, because I\u2019d paid all this money to get there, and people had helped me. So there was the pressure. It was the hardest thing I\u2019d ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being accepted for a two-week artist residency at a retreat known as the \u201cFish Factory,\u201d Caterina traveled not to Reykjav\u00edk, the capital of Iceland, but to the tiny fishing village of St\u00f6\u00f0varfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur<\/a> on the opposite side of the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most insane thing I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d she said, shaking her head in disbelief. \u201cTwenty-two hours of darkness every day. This place humbled me. I think a lot of my stuff just came out of being completely freaked out by the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before departing sunny San Diego, Caterina had packed her 35-year-old Polaroid camera and five packs of eight exposures<\/a>. In the age of digital photography, when most photographers would take thousands of images during two weeks in an exotic place, 40 pieces of film seem severely minimal\u2014and sure enough, Caterina ordered more film from Reykjav\u00edk.<\/p>\n

But then she came home with a set of images that are full of unexpected colors and forms, and distressed by her aging camera in startling and unique ways.<\/p>\n

Two of the exposures were good enough to earn coveted wall space in the \u201cSize Matters\u201d exhibition.<\/p>\n

A special exhibition held during the Medium Festival of Photography, Size Matter is being held at Helmuth Projects in Bankers Hill, with an opening reception on Oct. 28 from 7-10 p.m.<\/p>\n

Curated by Katherine Ware of the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, the exhibit features work smaller than 10 inches. Caterina\u2019s Polaroids easily qualify, condensing the vastness of a snowy Icelandic landscape into a few square inches.<\/p>\n

\"Two

The two images from Iceland that are featured in this weekend’s “Size Matters” exhibition, courtesy of Amy Caterina. Portrait of Caterina by Melinda Finn.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI work very small, because I like people to view my images one at a time,\u201d she explained. \u201cI do like controlling how close you have to get to my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donna Cosentino, chair of the Photography Department at Palomar College, said, \u201cI\u2019m ecstatic that we have Amy. She\u2019s done some amazing things, and we\u2019re very lucky to have her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally from Niagara Falls, New York, Caterina teaches Digital Photography and Digital Darkroom at Palomar.<\/p>\n

Caterina is funny and engaging and seems optimistic in a way that belies some of the difficult life she has lived. But her work is charged with emotion. As Cosentino put it, \u201cAmy\u2019s work is about who we are in this place\u2014it\u2019s about how humans exist on a day to day basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographers are always talking about light, but Caterina said being in Iceland in the middle of winter presented unique challenges. She likened it to the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright \u201cconsulting the light\u201d before designing \u201cFallingwater,\u201d one of his most famous pieces<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is exactly what I had to do in Iceland, because when you\u2019re there in January and you get an hour and a half of light, you\u2019re not in charge any more,\u201d said Caterina. \u201cIt\u2019s completely different than being in California, where it\u2019s like living on the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artistically, the experience in Iceland was transformative for Caterina. She says she can sense that it was a turning point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018I\u2019ve got to get out of here, this is so isolated,\u2019 and then I ended up making some of the most amazing things\u2014pictures that I know, for me, are pivotal. There was a change,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I left, I put a down payment on going back this year. Everyone was like, \u2018Are you nuts? While you were gone, all we heard was how dark and cold it was.\u2019 But that\u2019s how I am\u2014if I respond that viscerally to something, bad or good, it means I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She will return in June, when the sun will be shining 22 hours a day. She expects this to be similar to the challenges presented by winter in Iceland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a huge fan of the sun. I\u2019m covered all the time, I don\u2019t turn on any lights, my dream house is a bunker,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cI think the sun\u2019s going to drive me mad, but it\u2019ll be great. You can do anything for two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time, she wants to meet more of the people in St\u00f6\u00f0varfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur and take pictures of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to bring all my Polaroids,\u201d she said, \u201cand I\u2019ve already started stocking up on film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow Caterina and her dachshund, Walter Hill, on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amy Caterina went all the way to Iceland to bring home a pair of Polaroids on display Oct. 27-29 in Medium Festival of Photography\u2019s \u201cSize Matters\u201d exhibition. SAN MARCOS \u2014 When the photographic elite of San Diego descend on Bankers Hill for the Medium Festival of Photography on Oct. 28, two of the images on… \u00a0Continue Reading: Palomar professor’s work featured in photography show<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10413,"featured_media":1851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-features","category-home","category-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPalomar professor's work featured in photography show - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amy Caterina's Polaroids are on display Oct. 27-29 in the Medium Festival of Photography\u2019s \u201cSize Matters\u201d exhibition in San Diego.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/amy-caterina-show\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Palomar professor's work featured in photography show - 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