Teresa Duggan

Work samples

Karman Line Constellations

Karman Line Constellations - ekphrastic art made in response to Brian Salmons's poem, Accommodation Reflex. May 2019 issue: https://thelightekphrastic.com/may-2019-issue-38/duggan-salmons-may-2019/ Created with multiple layered and altered new digital photographs, of - some flowers seen on walk that reminded me of stars - lines from the inside pattern on a security envelope - black paper that I flicked shiny water drops onto - blue color from a Milk of Magnesia bottle
rainbow over Hampden

When a heavy downpour stopped and the sun came out, I stepped out the back alley to check out the light. I was rewarded with this fine full rainbow, which didn't last long. People in the park nearby with a clear view reported seeing a double rainbow, and I could hear cheers coming from the skatepark.
bass drummer marks the spot

Pennsylvania Avenue Easter parade
cemetery frog

cemetery frog

About Teresa

Teresa explores Baltimore city by foot and bicycle, photographing scenes that suggest curious stories, have a curious arrangement of elements, or a naturally pleasing composition. With unexpected subject matter possible around any corner, she enjoys the game of capturing these moments: ephemeral scenes, oddly juxtaposed objects, vivid colors and patterns, and solitary moments of enigmatic beauty and humor. Photos and collages have been shown at Maryland Art Place, Howard… more

View Teresa's Resume

seen in Baltimore

A few favorite scenes from Charm City. Almost every day, often several times a day, I see things from the absurd to the mundane that I feel the need to capture in photos. The strangeness and variety found all around Baltimore makes it hard to resist, and the fact that that scene might be gone the next time I'm there makes me want to catch it while I can.

cemetery frog

cemetery frog
red mystery tunnel

red mystery tunnel, with a friendly space invader
construction scene action, with wheels

construction scene action, with wheels
colt45 candycrush
blue caddy, pink house

blue caddy by the pink house
Winter pool cat (you must be...)

Winter pool cat (you must be...)
3 apple eaters

"world's largest vegetarian feast" outside Lexington Market
FLY garage

in an alley in Hampden
under the overpass

sunset light in a water reflection
pretty grave scene

Green Mount Cemetery in fall

Baltimore city street scenes

More of my favorite scenes from Charm City. Almost every day, often several times a day, I see things from the absurd to the mundane that I feel the need to capture in photos. The strangeness and variety found all around Baltimore makes it hard to resist, and the fact that that scene might be gone the next time I'm there makes me want to catch it while I can.

arabber in Penn-North

arabber in Penn-North, Baltimore
Hampden, USA
front yard cow, Hampden
rainbow over Hampden

When a heavy downpour stopped and the sun came out, I stepped out the back alley to check out the light. I was rewarded with this fine full rainbow, which didn't last long. People in the park nearby with a clear view reported seeing a double rainbow, and I could hear cheers coming from the skatepark.
snowy gray city with one red door

snowy gray city with one red door
graffiti lights the skies

graffiti lights the skies
skatebowl sunset magic

skatebowl sunset magic
blue car with huge rims and a chill arm

On a beautiful Easter Sunday in Druid Hill Park
rowhouse perspective

Baltimore one-point perspective
purple lights motorcycle

a fun surprise as I waited to cross the street, and a nice time of day to catch a mix of motion blurs in low light.

The Light Ekphrastic - art inspired by poems

For the past ten or so years, I've participated in The Light Ekphrastic, a quarterly online journal dedicated to the creation of new written and visual artworks through collaboration between artists. [Ekphrasis: art from writing, writing from art]
For each issue, writers and artists are paired, each creating a new poem, story, photograph, painting or other piece of artwork inspired by work previously submitted by their partner artist. The Light Ekphrastic was founded by editor Jenny O’Grady as a way of inspiring friends who hadn’t written or made art in a while to get back into practice. It has since grown to attract contributors from all over the world, and to include occasional forays into public spaces beyond the web. (Description from https://thelightekphrastic.com/about/)

This has inspired me to experiment with new and extended techniques in both my photography and graphic art. Whereas most of my photographs are spontaneous and inspired by scenes I come upon on the streets, the ekphrastic art for this project is mulled over for weeks or months, with many different photos, superimpositions, collages and video animations tried out until I find the right single artistic representation to go with my partner's poem. In many cases, I'm inspired by more than one of their writing submisisons and I create several different images in respose. Since one one image per project may be submitted in the end, it serves as a good deadline with an ultimate goal of new artistic creations, and achieves the founder's goal of pushing artists to create something new that they would not have done otherwise.

See them in context at The Light Ekphrastic website, under Duggan & ...

morning path at the cemetery

My photo for the 2018 Light Ekphrastic was chosen by Patricia Wentzel who wrote the poem "Aubade for Carol" in response. Read it here: https://thelightekphrastic.com/august-2018-issue-35/duggan-wentzel-august-2018/
Karman Line Constellations

Karman Line Constellations - ekphrastic art made in response to Brian Salmons's poem, Accommodation Reflex. May 2019 issue: https://thelightekphrastic.com/may-2019-issue-38/duggan-salmons-may-2019/ Created with multiple layered and altered new digital photographs, of - some flowers seen on walk that reminded me of stars - lines from the inside pattern on a security envelope - black paper that I flicked shiny water drops onto - blue color from a Milk of Magnesia bottle
Poem by Patricia Wentzel, "Savory Pine, Rushing Water"was the inspiration for my visual response

Poem by Patricia Wentzel, "Savory Pine, Rushing Water" was the inspiration for my visual response. Ekphrasis is "art from writing, writing from art".
video still from "R.E.M Dream: Contrails as Songlines" - whale tail and pines

Video still from "R.E.M Dream: Contrails as Songlines" - whale tail and pines. Video animation made from still images, created in response to Patricia Wentzel's poem, "Savory Pines, Rushing Water". View here: https://videopress.com/v/TTTLv2Iw
Ekhrastic 2017: poem and visual response: Reflecting Pool (screengrab)

Ekhrastic 2017: poem and visual response: Reflecting Pool (screengrab)
Reflecting Pool

Image made in response to Trish Hopkinson's poem for the 2017 Light Ekphrastic. Made from original photos of a mannequin, a reflecting pool with pennies and other coins, another photo of trees and skies. With line drawings, photographic textures, and digital alteration.
Ekphrastic 2016: Catherine Maire and Teresa Duggan traded art and words (screengrab)

Catherine Maire and Teresa Duggan traded art and words. Teresa shared this photograph, entitled “Blue Cadillac, Pink House,” with Catherine. In response Catherine wrote this poem.
2016 Ekphrastic poem and visual response, Duggan-Maire (screengrab)

2016 Ekphrastic poem and visual response, Duggan-Maire (screengrab) Catherine Maire shared this poem with Teresa, Winter. In response, Teresa made this image, Frosty Warm Glow.
frosty warm glow

In response to Catherine Maire's poem, Winter (see previous screengrab), Teresa made this image, entitled "frosty warm glow". New photographs were taken of a cold windowpane with frost and sunlight, and of a fuzzy warm blanket. Images were superimposed with added digital effects to achieve a somewhat abstract effect of staring out a window to sparkling snowdrifts.

the spaceship

A vintage blue car and a vintage blue spaceship: home sweet home.

Most of my photos are found surprises that I notice while walking the streets of Baltimore, but this one was worth special trips for an intentional photo shoot. This spaceship lives in Delaware, but when I exhibited one of these photos in Baltimore it unearthed stories of a similar that used to be in Dundalk, and people I knew who had grown up with it in the neighborhood. To me that just adds to the magic of it, and I hope one day I'll turn down an alley in Baltimore to see something like it. You just never know.

wide view
domestic pair
step up
do come in
mirror view
dream home
airplane hangar mystery

with legs
sunset landing strip
pink sky
moonlight spaceship visit

passenger seat

I wonder if the fact that I don't drive a car makes me enjoy the passenger seat scenes more than most people. The views out the window when I'm along for the ride are changing too fast to take it all in, offering an experience that's unique to being in motion on the road. The window glass and car hood add another layer of interest, with possible reflections, distortions, framing or obfuscation. Some of my favorite moments are at night and when there's rain obscuring neon lights. It's fun to try to freeze and capture a view of the landscape as it can only been seen at that particular moment in time.

foreground flying by

nature in motion, frozen in time from the passenger seat
sunday drive, passenger seat view

since we don't drive every day, pleasure drives in a vintage car are more of a special occasion, an opportunity to appreciate the changing scenery in all weather and types of light
siesta motel on the drive to the drive-in

old signs along Route 40 east, with a pink sunset sky reflected in the car hood
diner stop through a rainy car window

a blurry spray of neon across the windshield
wet window wiggles
Howard St. bridge from the bus

The bright yellow of the bridge against the darkening sky before a storm prompted me to lean out the window to try to capture a fleeting moment.
flamingo hotel

looking cinematic on a rainy night drive, with reflected lights traveling across the wet car hood
gas station distortion

a wet and wobbly approach making for some surreal shifting shapes
green go lanes abstract

red closed lane and tail lights, Bay Bridge
motel neon obscured in rain

people

I usually photograph people when I can surreptitiously snap a secret moment from them. They tend to be fleeting and unposed, often leaving some major part of the story out of the frame. The ones I keep usually have something a little awkward or unfinished about them that makes them more interesting to me. I'm slowly starting to get over my shyness and approach people to ask for their photos, but I still prefer the fleeting ones.

Korean fan dancers with painted wall and shipping container

Seoul to Soul, Y Not Lot Baltimore
bass drummer marks the spot

Pennsylvania Avenue Easter parade
Bobby, corner of Howard & Lexington

He was talking with enthusiasm about getting back on his feet, he had just gotten some work after almost a year without a steady job.
Deluxe Nails and Bare Feet Shoes

A mix of big signs and little people. Howard Street, downtown Baltimore
Halloween in Hampden

There's something awkward about this shadowy scene that made me love it.
uphill glide

uphill glide
dandelion with matching graffiti
beauty school sidewalk

She's holding a head with curlers by the beauty school. In the bottom left is a passing car that accidentally completed the composition.
festival boredom with a glove balloon
matching hair

The Arraber horse caught my eye of course, but then so did the woman with the big cross, and the realization that they had similar fine hair.

would-be drawings (shape/pattern/surface)

Sometimes photos can have a quality that transcends the thing being photographed and stand on their own, just for the shapes, textures, and composition. These are a few that I could imagine being drawings, paintings, sculptures or installations if they weren't photographs.

crackle collage

Crackle collage. a found 'readymade' at an the intersection of city sidewalk and adandoned building
cracked linoleum butterfly wing
carnivorous dew plant grid
pine needles in a sewer manhole
ice rink marks
windshield branches

trees on the other side of the glass and overlapping reflections in the front
unripe echinacea
industrial Diebenkorn

I stopped to capture the unintended art of the graffiti cover-up blotches on the left, but ended up loving the lines and shapes in the background even more.
rainwindowtreedrops

a tree through a car window, with the foreground focus on the tiny upside-down tree images in each raindrop
sidewalk shapes

street mysteries and delights of the easily amused

Sometimes little details just require me to stop and snap a photo. Often in the middle of the street or other times and places where I really shouldn't be taking photos. But usually worth the weird looks I get from doing it. They make me curious, and they make me smile.

walk this way

The similar shapes in the sign, trees and light poles as well as the pretty sunset made me laugh as a I rounded a corner to see this. I imagined the man flipping upside down to try to camouflage himself at nightfall. Like I said, easily amused.
gray buddies waiting

Parking meter and a car seat at the curb, taken from the bus.
pumpkin head hydrant

in November.
tree scissors

near Patterson Park
revenge of the startling street objects

Some mannequin parts in an antique shop window laid out just right in the shadows of the street and bench outside
architectural divide
white flamingo on a green wall

white flamingo on a green wall. in an alley near Mt. Vernon
snake-berry loop

I found this little brown snake sunning himself on some stone steps when the weather got warm enough... and using fallen holly berries in ways that must only make sense to a snake.
Arraber horse LOVE

A chance visit by a horse named Lady delivering veggies to Hampden. This shot caught her paused in front of the mural of hands spelling out "L-O-V-E"
manhole-impaired yellow stripes

An oldie but goodie; the kind of thing that made me start carrying a digital camera in the streets of Baltimore.

wonders of nature

A selection of some of the natural world that's caught my eye (and stayed still long enough to photograph.)

chard with bug holes in sharp sun

chard with bug holes in sharp sun
micro baby mantis on a fingernail

micro baby mantis on a fingernail
teeny plant visitor

A tiny flower fly disguised as a bee on the middle of a lacecap hydrangea. No color added, straight from the camera.
frosty leaves
fern spores and shadow

fern spores and shadow
skipper moth on butterfly bush
black swallowtail butterfly scales

black swallowtail butterfly scales
a strand of light drops

after the rain, with 'salvia black and blue' flowers coloring the background
zigzag-web X-spider
dead metallic fly

windows

The combined inside/outside views of various windows can create layers within each image. The view becomes more interesting because of the glass itself.

triangles
pretty light glare flare from a scratchy bus window

passing by a street corner in Remington, catching the sun around a corner
water lines at the former White Coffe Pot

water lines at the former White Coffe Pot
downtown through a wet blue car window

downtown through a wet blue car window
tree leaves reflected in an old car windshield
Wig Walk Way

lovely looming ladies at large
Light Rail window dot landscape

Some lovely abstract views can come about from those perforated screens they wrap the trains with
buildings in a windshield

downtown delivery van
library-Basilica window

when the windows look back
ginkgo leaves on a car window