Flo Fox - My Favorite Images
Flo Fox
Artist Statement
Photography is my existence: picture taking kept my diary intact for 50 years. I’ve carried a camera by my side every moment of every day, it is my therapy for both pleasures and challenges. My 35 mm photographs remain on contact sheets attached to negatives in date order.
I always felt I had one great advantage being born blind in one eye and never having to close that eye while taking a picture. I also didn’t have to convert a three-dimensional view to a flat plain since that was the way I automatically saw. All I had to do was frame the image perfectly.
When I field tested the first point and shoot camera for Camera 35 magazine, I used that opportunity to teach visually impaired and totally blind students photography at The Lighthouse for the Blind. The Leica Camera Corp was generous and gave us the Focomat enlarger to finish the course. Those in the class wanted to know what they had encountered and what the view was out their bedroom windows, and we then described all the colorful details to them. We were able to show our accomplishments in newspapers, magazines, and television. I continued using that enlarger on thousands of my own personal images for more than twenty years.
As an advocate for the disabled, I built cement pedestrian ramps on corners for wheelchair accessibility. I also took photos to bring attention to the needs for change.
Often, people don’t believe in or follow horoscopes but when there is a full moon the tides rise, women’s menstrual cycles are affected, and havoc is caused in police stations. People are probably also influenced because they are made up of 80% water. Since I have many planets in Gemini (representing the twins), it persuades me to photograph many different subjects.
Since I have multiple sclerosis, doctors said it could cause depression or euphoria; I was lucky in the latter. I discovered that the more disabled i became, the less anyone expected of me and the more time I had to create, and to write. I’m just glad I did what I did when I could.
Biography
I was born Florence Blossom Fox, September 26, 1945, in Miami Beach Florida where my father started a honey factory. He died two years later when he was just 38 years old. My mother then moved back to our apartment in Woodside, Queens, New York City. She raised her four kids there until her death (when I was fourteen years old). I remained quiet with my family in mourning at the cemetery; with morbid curiosity, I wondered who her neighboring souls were. Since then, wherever I have travelled, I photographed intriguing monuments and grave site statuary.
When I left home i got my real education on the streets. At age eighteen, marriage and motherhood came simultaneously.
I didn’t get a camera until I got divorced at age twenty-six. A, "street photographer” since 1972, my work has been published and exhibited internationally. I've had the freedom and good fortune for extensive travel. I’ve taken over 130,000 photographs and subjects vary but tend toward the "ironic reality."
My work was shown at the Nikon House, IBM gallery, and is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian. Images have also been published in New York Magazine and have been exhibited internationally.
My photography covers all aspects of being a single woman/artist in New York City: “Asphalt Gardens, 69 photos by Flo Fox” was published by the national access center in 1981. The “Up in Smoke” collection (of 57 photos), 11 photos, were published in “Life” magazine, Sept. 1994. All these images showed the rising cost of cigarettes. My work was in a two-person exhibit with "Weegee the Famous" in Paris, France 1987, and a two-person show “opposites attract” with Gigi Stoll in Italy 2012. I was also an advocate for the disabled, taking photos where things were not accessible and blocking the public buses until the driver stopped and lowered the ramp for wheelchairs. At this time, I’m stuck in the house due to COVIDit offers me the opportunity to write this story. And I hope to learn about the digital camera and promote it wisely.
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