About Gwen

After a 28-year career in banking and finance, she began studying photography at the International Center for Photography and with several renowned fine art photographers. She draws inspiration for her photography from her international travels as well as places close to home, engaging with the world with curiosity and passion. Her award-winning images focus on varied environments that stir unexpected emotions. She tries to capture isolation, silence, estrangement, mystery, and loneliness in her creative practice. She hopes the viewer will want to exist in the photo or to feel like they are looking into a memory.

Gwen uses digital and film photography in her practice. She also uses non-traditional, non-commercial photographic printing processes to reimagine her work. She values the knowledge and skill these processes demand and the direct contact they give her with the image. As in life, the outcomes are not always predictable, but uncertainty nurtures possibility.

In 2022 Gwen spent six weeks in residency at the Savannah and Lacoste Campuses of the School of Art and Design.

Gwen was awarded the Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society in December 2022.

In May of 2023, she spent four weeks as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.

She has had a solo exhibition, “Landscapes and Other Images” at the Feldman Family Art Space on Martha’s Vineyard and was featured in many group exhibitions.

In November 2019, Gwen was in a solo exhibition showcasing stark and lonely landscapes from the Bolivian High Desert. The exhibition was accompanied by a Limited Edition Artist Book “The Road to Potosí”. The Artist's Book was the Wester States Print Alliance 2020 Best of Show Winner and is included in The Whitney Museum of Art Library.

Several of her images are in the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Permanent Art Collection, the collection of the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, the Art Program at Stanford Health Care as well as several significant private collections. In 2023 an edition of platinum palladium prints was contributed to the Photography collection of the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies at the annual dinner at the U. S. State Department.

Gwen lives in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard with her husband Peter Norton.

Exhibitions

Recent Exhibitions

Picturing the Fair - A Virtual Exhibition, West Tisbury Library, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. August 2020

Group Exhibitions
December 2014, Professional Women Photographer Small Wonder - Atlantic Gallery
May 2015, Professional Women Photographer Whims of Weather - National Arts Club
May 2015, Alison Shaw Advanced Mentorship Advanced Mentorship - Alison Shaw Gallery
May 2015, Professional Women Photographers - Whims of Weather Show - National Arts Club, New York, New York.
September 2019, Picturing the Fair - Martha’s Vineyard Museum
October 2019, The Road to Potosi - Photographs from the Bolivian High Desert - Rogue Space Chelsea
July 2020, Fabulous Group Virtual Art Show, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse Art Space, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
August 2020, Picturing the Fair - A Virtual Exhibition, West Tisbury Library, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Solo Show
November 2019, The Road to Potosí, Photographs from the Bolivian High Desert - Rogue Gallery, New York, New York.
September 2018, Landscapes and Other Images - Feldman Family Art Space, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Awards

2015, All Island Art Fair Martha’s Vineyard - 1st, 2nd Prize and the Della Hartman Award
2015,  Agricultural Fair Martha’s Vineyard - Blue Ribbon 

Collections

Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Permanent Art Collection.
Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies
Several Private Collections

Education

International Center for Photography
Santa Fe Workshop
Alison Shaw Advanced Mentorship 

Publications

Martha’s Vineyard Times
Martha’s Vineyard Gazette

Photo by Timothy Greenfield Sanders