Debra Van Swearingen is an artist whose goal is to continue to provide quality photographs that provoke emotion within the viewer; whether it be wondrous, nostalgic, inquisitive or solemn. She’s had a passion for photography since the age of eleven when she was given a Kodak instamatic by her father. As visual as she was, it was very natural for her to view life through a lens. She has been influenced by and studied with broad range of artists and photographers such as Georgia O’Keefe, Margaret Bourke-White, Ansel Adams, as well as many contemporary photographers of today. Debra graduated from the University of Oklahoma, after which she has worked for the Department of Defense in contracting. She has also pursued photography in the evenings at the Oklahoma School of Photography.
Over her more than 30 years of experience, she has studied various processes such as Polaroid transfer, black and white, hand painted, digital capture and Polaroid manipulation. It was after two years (1995 – 1996) of cancer remediation that she decided to make a profession out of her passion. In 1997 she established a studio in Oklahoma City in the Paseo Arts District and has become an award-winning accomplished photographer in the field of photographic arts. She prefers working with natural light and derives her subjects from the “beauty of nature” in the form of landscapes, botanical and animal images, and still life’s. She used film for many years but she now strives to utilize digital technology to give each image its own individual appeal. Her work is displayed at private collections and at her studio/gallery.
