Olga Merrill ‘s life as an artist began in Maine. At the end of 2015 she got a photo camera and her view of the world became different through lenses. Photography was a hobby for her father, and she remembers the smell of chemicals from being with him in his darkroom. Who knew that after more than 35 years from her first brief touch of photography, it would be her hobby and photography started playing a significant role in her life.

Olga says, seemingly playfully, that she hardly recognizes herself as a photographer. Instead, she says, she uses photography as a tool – like an instrument to make music or a brush for painting – to create an image of her vision, with a dreamy and indirect relationship to external reality. She does this in varying styles. Some images are essentially representative photography of the world around her that nevertheless dissolve into the wonder of abstract pattern, while others are complex manipulations of the ordinary visual world that use intentional camera movement, multiple exposures, and well planned color pallets to reflect her vision, dreams and feelings – and resonate with ours.

One of her favorite quotes comes from photographer Diane Arbus:

“A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.”

The show includes work from the series of her images, entitled “Harbor”. The Harbor images vividly evoke what she calls her “fairytale visions of boats “, fantasies of sailing away to shores only imagined, of running before the wind forever onwards. The Harbor series images derive from time spent in Maine’s harbors.