Tampa's photographer laureate this year is meticulously contributing to the visual archive.
By GRACE AGOSTIN
Published August 20, 2004
If anyone knows the difference between noon and late afternoon in South Tampa it's Suzanne Camp Crosby, Tampa's 2004 photographer laureate. To capture the best lighting, she can go through 10 rolls of film for one image.
That's because her work is being documented for the Big Picture, a project designed to reflect life in Tampa through photography.
The city's public art program commissioned Camp Crosby for $25,000 to take photos for a chapter in Tampa's photo archive.
Camp Crosby was the second artist selected for the multiyear project, which will focus on Tampa's architecture and landmarks, including Ybor City, the University of Tampa and the Hillsborough River.
A photography professor at Hillsborough Community College's Ybor campus since 1977, Camp Crosby knows Tampa's best sights firsthand. She lives in Palma Ceia.
"I can't imagine having lived here for two years and trying to do this," she said. "It's definitely a plus to have lived here for all these years."
Upon being named laureate in January, Camp Crosby listed the architecture and landmarks she wanted to capture for the 20 to 25 photos she will add to the Big Picture.
"It's a huge challenge," she said. "It's almost too big when you start thinking about it too much. You go to New Orleans, and they're known for Bourbon Street. Here it's the beach, Bayshore, the air base."
Camp Crosby works in a style called assemblage, which incorporates objects into photos to create a collage effect. Rather than using the latest digital cameras, she works with a 1974 Calumet and an early 1990s Hasselblad, which have larger, easier-to-see negatives.
Working with the heavy-duty cameras takes practice. When she looks through the back of the Calumet, the image is upside-down and backward. With the Hasselblad, the image is reversed.
During a recent photo shoot at noon from the top of the Wachovia building's parking garage on Tampa Street, Camp Crosby decided she would have to return on a Sunday later in the afternoon to get the exact shot she wants of Ashley Drive. The light would be better and the streets less congested.
"I really have to think about what I'm going to shoot," she said. "I think it's because I was a painter first."
Her precision and imagination can turn the side of a building into art. For a photo of Indigo, the coffee shop on N Howard Avenue, she set up black toy cars on the dashboard of her Buick to match the black cars painted on a buffer wall. Her other assemblage work includes arranging paper dolls on a Hawaiian dress used as a backdrop for a tourist-themed photo.
Robin Nigh, administrator of the public arts program, said Camp Crosby's work adds a new perspective to the Big Picture. Her photos have been featured in 59 exhibits nationwide, including "UnderCURRENT/OverVIEW 4" at the Tampa Museum of Art in 2000.
Last year's photo laureate, Beth Reynolds, worked with digital. Reynolds photographed events and downtown Tampa's businesses and neighborhoods.
The public art program will continue to name a laureate each year until the city has a thorough documentary of Tampa.
"We really do want multiple perspectives so that in five or 10 years we will have an incredible archive," Nigh said.
