Catherine Bauknight Photography
Catherine Bauknight
July 5 - 25, 2024
Catherine Bauknight is an international News Photojournalist, Editorial Documentary Photographer, and Filmmaker, based in Los Angeles. She is an Adjunct Professor of Photography and a Journalist. The distinguished photographer was one of the first women photojournalists in the South from outside of New York City to Atlanta and while based in Charlotte, North Carolina she covered regional stories for Time Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, the New York Times, People Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine and published in Life Magazine and other international publications. Many assignments were based on the “Old South” transitioning to the “New South” through economic growth and social integration.
Bauknight’s philosophy is simple: “From my experiences, I believe that culture is the DNA, the common denominator for communications between all people.”
Her roots in photography began after studying oil painting at Arizona State University. She was given an older model Agfa Camera and a Photography 101 Book by her Father-in-Law, Photographer Lavoy Bauknight, for her birthday as she was getting on a plane to live in Germany for three years. It was while crossing the Tiber River Bridge of Rome a few weeks later that she was so overwhelmed by the design and beauty of the water, the sky, and the subtle colors of nature that she made an instant move for the camera and discovered the vibrant reality of the scene through the viewfinder. She shot her first photograph. In that insant, she understood her heartfelt compassion for photography which has continued throughout her career. She says that photography becomes more powerful in content and design with the understanding of a language she refers to as “light writing”. “Photography evokes joy, beauty, sorrow, empathy, unity, education, and change in the human soul”, Bauknight says.
Catherine Bauknight creates social statements through the impact of public art photographic murals. This includes a 29x9 foot mural at the Charlotte Panther's NFL Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC and 8x9 foot images of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a traveling exhibition. She was one of four photographers to document the 1989 massacre in Beijing, China. Her artistic photographic social commentary style has been compared to the photography of Margaret Bourke-White, who documented social change. Bauknight was a protégé and friend of the legendary photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.
In the new millennium, Bauknight continues to photograph news events and document cultures and social change through the eye of her camera, capturing social and political scenarios that will soon vanish and one day be experienced only through photography and literature.
She is currently completing a documentary film on the culture of fashion in Los Angeles and beginning a sequel documentary to Hawaii A Voice For Sovereignty.
Bauknight's goal is to share the cultural sensitivity and the identity of people globally to help build a foundation of deep understanding and peaceful relationships around the world. She says that the Native Americans reveal that this is the time that knowledge will be shared among all people of the world. She collaborates and is a cultural ambassador through the boundless power of photography and filmmaking.
Opening Reception: Friday, July, 5, 7 pm - 9 pm
Betsy Lueke Creative Arts Center
1100 W Clark Ave
Burbank, CA 91506
818.238.5397 | [email protected]
