Heidi Montoya Photo

My story began in the mountains of Colorado where I grew up surrounded by natural beauty. I picked up the camera when I lost my brother to suicide as a teenager. Photographing was my way back to the world and it has shaped the way that I see it even now. With the loss of my brother, I felt myself blown to all corners of the earth and spent many years collecting those missing parts. Part of this journey was being fortunate enough to study photography at California College of the Arts before digital became the new paradigm. The time there helped grow my vision and introduced me to the Polaroid Land Camera. The unique dreaminess of those polaroid images has me forever chasing that aesthetic. Even now in digital times I do my best to emulate that style of photography. Pre-Covid my photography had translated itself through lonely landscapes and culminated in Road Stories, a photographic essay. This body of work led to a curated show in Spain at Ola Lab Gallery. After the show I continued to add to this collection but as Covid crept in and our worlds became smaller, my subject matter shifted. No longer was I shooting the empty places I'd wandered to. Now my whole world became about one Magnolia tree. I've always loved this tree and for past several seasons I document my muse through its winter to spring transition. It's interesting reducing one’s own world to something so singular yet shows you the universes that you can create right in front of yourself. This past winter of 2023 I finally opened up the last precious box of type 55 polaroid film to take some images of the magnolia tree with my 4x5 camera. It's a different way of shooting and requires the shooter to truly be present in the act of making a photograph. I really enjoyed stepping back into the polaroid film process and watching the magic unfold.