PICTORIAL STORY
May 12, 2023
MULTIPLICITY
Photography by Amy Newton McConnel
Story by Karen Ghostlaw Pomarico
Amy Newton McConnel is a visual storyteller based in Phoenix, Arizona. She has been highly creative since childhood, engaging and making art in many mediums, giving her the tools to work with different applications of mixed media, expanding her abilities to express her ideas. Amy has always had a camera and an interest in photography.
Amy brings to us a unique way of visual storytelling, depicting her critical thinking through ‘In Camera Movement’ photography. ICM photography utilizes techniques where the camera is intentionally moved during the exposure to create painterly and abstract artistic effects. This allows Amy to create abstract art engaging her camera as a tool to define the story she wishes to express.
“I am inspired by lines and textures, colors and shapes and create art that inspires emotional response. ICM photography inspires me to see, feel and think differently and interpret my surroundings in a new and unexpected way.”
Amy shares her project MULTIPLICITY with us. Amy invites us for an intimate view of her daughter’s world, illuminating and capturing the expressive ambiance her daughter embodies with ADHD. Her family has worked hard to create an environment where their daughter not only feels like she can be herself, but has embraced her ADHD and considers it intrinsic to what makes her so special to Amy’s family.
“We refer to her ADHD as her ‘Superpower’. We tell her all the time. She embraces it and says that’s what makes her unique. We should all learn a valuable lesson here, just think what she will accomplish with her superpower! We are positive she is already, and will continue to make this world a better place.”
Amy depicts her daughter’s ADHD through abstraction, allowing for ICM photography to express the characteristics and brilliance of her daughter’s persona that she admires and adores. It is a unique opportunity for us to understand how many outstanding people there are in our communities and in our own families that face challenges daily in a world that can be not very accepting or friendly at times. Amy shares her project with us.
“My daughter, my muse, my source of creative inspiration. Small, yet mighty, she is a commanding, colorful and emotional spirit... not to be reckoned with. She embodies innocence, drama, intelligence, complexity and perpetual movement. She has ADHD. In this body of work, Multiplicity, I have attempted to capture the essence of her unlimited energy, psyche, and her soul.
Her ADHD mind is an endless racetrack; a provocateur of impulsivity, a super power of creativity and imagination; a dysregulation of emotions. Patience is not her strong suit - movement is her preferred companion. She exudes energy, expression and explosive emotion. Her movements are super fast and dramatic. She acts before thinking with no inhibition, no regard for consequence.
There is beauty in her mental disorder. Beauty found in the flux of uncontrolled movements and the drama of exaggerated emotions. As a mom of an ADHD child, it is exhausting; a never ending dialog and wake of disorder and destruction - an envy of unlimited energy and virtuosity. As an artist, my focus is on harnessing her racing brain, her constant changing thoughts and her fleeting emotions and impulsivity. To take that energy and to visualize her transient thoughts and emotions that capture those fleeting moments...because her brain will forget them in just a minute's time.
Multiplicity is an in-depth insight into the complexity of the neurodiverse mind. The beauty of impulsivity and hyperactivity. The fluidity, color and emotion of ADHD as it appears and disappears in the blink of an eye. Each image is intended to capture your attention, engage your thoughts and help you contemplate the flow of movement and the intricacy of multiple emotions.”
The Pictorial List thanks Amy for her insight and intimate look into her daughter’s unique way of engaging the world. We thank her for a better understanding of how exceptional people with ADHD are, and we should receive their gifts with respect and admiration.
Amy has utilized the techniques of ICM photography to capture poetic emotions in time. Some reflect on moments of personal illumination, while others depict the rhythm of the natural world, embracing the uncertainty in a moment, giving the viewer the ability and freedom to allow a spontaneous emotional reaction.
To see Amy’s other work and support her projects and photography, please follow her links below.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s, and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List and the team.