About

I have observed and recorded the visual world around me as long as I can remember. The medium shifts, but photography has been a constant since my teens, when I inherited a 1956 Rolleiflex 2.8E camera from a grandmother and fell for its retro design and operation, waist-level focusing screen and the 2 1/4” square negatives it produced.

Having brought to photography a studio art background, I loved the compositional challenge of a square image. With a square, one has to work harder to create a balanced yet dynamic image. Also challenging with the Rollei is the left-right reversal of the image as viewed on the focusing screen.

Gradually, I became less interested in scenery, objects or human activity and more intrigued by ephemeral visual effects of light, shadow, wind and water and the juxtaposition of natural and manmade elements. Alignments of disparate elements flattened into two dimensions become enigmatic and incongruous forms. Backlit vegetation, competing masses of foliage, chairs in a scrubby tangle of mangroves, light penetrating a garden corner create an almost voyeuristic stage set for unseen dramas to unfold.

There is always more than meets the eye. Evocative vignettes elevate the mundane, ambiguity distorts, and, for a fleeting moment, one senses mystery, struggle, menace, whimsy or pathos “in a corner, some untidy spot”* overlooked —and soon forgotten.

*W.H. Auden, L'École des Beaux Arts

Bio

With deep roots in Washington, D.C., Elizabeth often finds inspiration and respite from the cacophony of urban life in the area’s abundant parks and green spaces. Many of her images reflect familiar haunts and spots off the beaten path or along oft-traveled roadways. Her love of art was always encouraged at home, as there were other artists and photographers in her family. She earned a B.A. in Studio Art from Yale, where she was introduced to analog photography and darkroom printing and subsequently won a 2nd place prize in Hartford Advocate Newspaper’s first Photography Awards exhibition in 1979. She also received a prize for painting at Silvermine Guild’s 29th New England Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture.

After returning to Maryland in 1981, a class at Photoworks in Glen Echo Park led her to facilities where she has printed regularly for over 20 years. She participated in numerous shows there including a solo show, Signs of Life (2013), and exhibitions in 2001, 2010, 2016, January and May 2017, and a 2021 tribute exhibit, Under the Influence, to Frank “Tico” Herrera, Photoworks co-founder, mentor, and teacher of the Master Darkroom Class.

Additional shows at other local venues (some now closed) included:

  • Touchstone Gallery

  • Rockville Arts Place

  • Washington Gallery of Photography

  • Levine School of Music

  • Washington National Cathedral

  • Embassy of Jamaica Ambassador’s residence

Elizabeth lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband Gary Kret, also an artist. She cherishes therapeutic time in the garden, drawing, playing piano and, of course, sloshing her prints in developer trays in the darkroom, watching the floating images emerge.