Friday, November 2, 2007

Featuring TiffanyTeske

About Tiffany in her own words:

The thrill of photography captured me at the age of seven when I was given a 110 camera to document a family trip. In high school, I studied art and dance but never enrolled in a photography class. Instead, a kind science teacher taught me how to process and print film in the school darkroom, so I could indulge my creativity whenever I wished, independent of a supervised class.

In 1991, at the age of 18, I left Minneapolis, Minnesota, for Tempe, Arizona, where I lived for one and a half years before continuing my travels with temporary homes on Jupiter Island, Florida and Fisher's Island, New York. In 1994, I settled down in the western mountains of Carrabassett Valley, Maine. Photography was used to record the details of my life, yet remained nothing more than a hobby.

In 1995, I moved one town south, to Kingfield, population 1,100. In 1997, at the age of 23, I decided to return to school. I enrolled in general courses at the University of Maine in Farmington, 30 minutes away, with the intension of transferring to a nursing school. My ultimate goal was to be a pediatric surgical nurse, yet my yearning to be a photographer kept me questioning my true calling. I was torn between a career in the medical field or in the arts. Long story short, after a series of unexpected detours and discoveries, I decided to jump into photography with both feet. I never looked back and before I was done, I earned two degrees from the University of Maine at Augusta, a two and a half hour round trip commute that I made up to 3 times a week. The first was an Associate of Arts in Photography (Magna cum Laude) in December of 2000, and then a Bachelor of Arts Joint BA in Art and Photography (Magna cum Laude) in May of 2002.

I have been making my living as a photographer since 1998, when I started my career at the same time I started to study photography at University. I am thankful to be able make a living doing what I love.

To indulge my spirit of wanderlust and to fuel my creative inspiration, I travel to the chosen environments of my portrait clients, whether they live down the street or halfway around the globe. Inevitably, serving my clients and exploring these new places contributes valuably to the fine art photography that I create as an artist. I have intentional chosen to balance working in both the commercial and art realms. I find that together they blend into a unique harmony that appeals not only to a bliss filled expectant mother, but also to the artist who is looking for an innovative way to market their services, and again to the art enthusiast seeking an image that moves them to want to have it grace their wall. I look forward to future opportunities put my heart and soul into my work."

It's no wonder she finds inspiration everywhere!

"Sometimes, I wish I wasn't so inspired, because I feel I will never have enough time to create all the ideas that I have. To name a few I am inspired by nature, by civilization and how it invades nature, in patterns and textures both organic and inorganic, by all things vintage and historic, by my child and my relationships with others, by animals in the wild... I see beauty not just in "beautiful" things but find immense beauty in entropy, in the process of things breaking down and decaying."

She advertises at Etsy, on her website, business cards, through word of mouth, and with Etsy resources at places like craft and art fairs.

"Emulsion lift"



"Polaroid Transfer"


Words of advice would she offers to other artists:

"Know the business side of things if you want to succeed. You don't have to have formal training in your art but you need social and business skills, or to hook up with someone who has these skills and can represent you. No one is going to hand you success on a silver platter, you have to work hard for it. And my other advice would be to hang in there. There is a dismal amount of full time artists who are older than 40....Can't think of anything else."


Her websites are:




No comments: