Photography instructor’s work on display in Colorado, Vermont

Photographs created by Joanna Knox Yoder, photography instructor at Pennsylvania College of Technology, are included in juried exhibitions in Colorado and Vermont.

Yoder’s “Bird Tree” was selected for “Enchantment,” an exhibition at zoneFIVE in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On display April 4-27, the exhibit also offers an online gallery .

Her work “Reverie” will be featured in the “Ruins and Remnants” exhibition, running May 2-23, at PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont. An online gallery is viewable now.

Yoder photographed “Bird Tree” using a $40 plastic camera called a Holga, taped together with electrical tape, so that light didn’t leak into the camera.

“The image was shot using black-and-white film while I was kayaking in Rehoboth Bay last summer,” the artist said. “It was a magical experience kayaking through a remote area in the bay, surrounded by thousands of laughing gulls that sounded like a chorus. This one (in the photograph) sat so regally on the rustic, weathered tree; I remember feeling a rush of excitement as I captured the bird at just the right moment before I floated away.”

The “Enchantment” show is centered on the theme of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, where the unseen becomes visible, and familiar scenes are infused with magic. The exhibit features photographs that capture moments that evoke fascination, mystery and “a sense that there’s more to the world than meets the eye.”

Her “Reverie” photograph depicts half of a broken plaster-cast face nestled in the crumbling plaster of a window in an abandoned school.

“I shot the image using my favorite camera, a vintage Yashica-Mat Twin Lens Reflex, using black-and-white film,” Yoder explained. “The window was within an old classroom at the former JW Cooper School in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, which was torn down not long after my photo shoot there. I made the image as I reflected on my role as a teacher and how much the educational environment has changed over time. I wanted the broken face to appear as if it was formed from the crumbling wall itself, while daydreaming about the future beyond the window of the classroom. The juxtaposition of the crumbling classroom with the face – symbolic of both identity and imagination – creates a sense of both loss and potential.”

The “Ruins and Remnants” exhibit explores the evocative theme of abandoned architecture and the traces left by humanity. The display will showcase images that reveal the stories etched into architectural spaces and the objects left behind that speak to histories and inspire contemplation. From crumbling factories and forgotten homes to discarded tools and personal belongings, these remnants of human presence evoke a sense of time’s passage and humanity’s impermanence.

Joanna Knox Yoder

Yoder earned a Master of Fine Arts in photography from Savannah College of Art and Design, and a Bachelor of Arts in art education from University of Maryland, College Park. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

For more information on Penn College’s Bachelor of Science degree in graphic design, Associate of Applied Science in advertising art and arts-related courses, contact the School of Business, Arts & Sciences at 570-327-4521.

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