Pinky Bass

As a photographer I always aimed at exploring the threads of the mystery of life: incarnation, regeneration, aging, death. My stitchery work began during my sister’s battle with cancer. I became obsessed with what was going on inside her body and began a series of internal organs sewn onto photographs of the human figure. I have done handwork all my life and the comfort of working that way on my photo images helped me through a very long grieving period. I had lived in Mexico City for five years as a young married mother. Discovering Frida Kahlo’s Blue House was life-changing.  In 2021 Carolyn DeMeritt and I published an artist book entitled entwined. The book included individual and collaborative work from my series called “Interventions” of which Fran’s X-ray is a part.

At age 52 I went back to school and received my MFA in photography, after which I returned to live in the old family home in Fairhope, AL. I worked as an Artist in Education for the Alabama State Council on the Arts, received a RAP grant, a SAF/NEA grant and an Alabama Artist Fellowship. My work has been included in various collections and publications, including the Philadelphia Museum, the High in Atlanta, the Birmingham Museum, Aperture, the Pinhole Journal, The Polaroid Book and Christopher James’ Book of Alternative Processes.

Space One Eleven Involvement:  Exhibiting Artist: Dia de Los Muertos 1996, Tangle of Complexes 1996, Politics, Politics 2006, Now and Then 2007; Space One Eleven City Center Art pinhole camera project 1995