Blood Ties, © Pinky/MM Bass, Carolyn DeMeritt

I met Pinky/MM Bass several years ago when I asked her to be the keynote speaker for an exhibition. I had seen her work at the Mobile Museum of Art and was enthralled by her inventive approach to photography. I respected her as an artist, so much so that I felt shy when we first spoke but within minutes we were laughing.

Since that time, I have visited her now and again. Whenever I walk into her studio my eyes widen in wonder. She is always working on at least one project and is full of creative energy. Photographs are on the wall and the large worktable. There are embroidered works, photo-transfers collaged with eco-prints and lace, and there is even a lampshade that is a work of art. She often collaborates with other artists in a way that leads to mutual inspiration. I see something new every time I visit.

Once, I saw a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis in a jar on her kitchen counter. We watched it as it wobbled and then fluttered on new wings into a bright blue sky. Magic happens at Pinky’s place.

Pinky Bass received her MFA in photography from Georgia State University in 1988 at age 52.  Her awards include SAF/NEA, RAP, and the 2024 Alabama State Arts Council Impact Award. Bass’ work is represented in the Polaroid Collection and numerous museums, including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High Museum in Atlanta, and the Birmingham Museum of Art.  Publications include The Pinhole Journal, The Polaroid Book, and the Book of Alternative Photographic Processes.  She has had over 40 national and international exhibitions and was featured in Alabama Public Television’s 2019 series Monograph.

Bass has recently been working on an “anti-retrospective” titled Threads of (dis)Integration at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile, AL.

Follow Pinky on Instagram: @pinkymmbass

Body Nostalgia, © Pinky/MM Bass

As a photographer I have always been drawn to the human figure, addressing issues of the mystery at the edge of knowledge, the fragility of life, and the process of aging and dying.

The longer I live the more aware I become of the people, places, and things that make me who I am. They are like connective threads that alter the work I do, strands that tend to veer off into tapestries that I accept as extensions of my photographic vision. They often alter my methods of presentation by interweaving themselves with my personal history. Images from this journey can be seen in my exhibition at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile, AL: Threads of (dis)Integration (May 10, 2024-autumn 2024).

Some of my seminal revelations and alterations in the field of photography have come from:

–exploring “true collaboration” with ceramicist Kitty Couch  (mixing clay with photographic emulsion)

–living through my sister’s death from cancer and discovering visuals of the internal workings of the human body

–photographic work with Carolyn DeMeritt as she shared in my journey with her camera, offering her images for intervention by me with needle and thread; (our joint publication, entwined, contains a number of these images and can be found on her website )

–adventures in transfer and natural dye processes with Doug Baulos

 and others at “Camp Pinky”.

Every day I look for new shards of imagery and visual experiments to expand my world.

Rods and Cones, © Pinky/MM Bass

Centered, © Pinky/MM Bass

Karen Bullock: Pinky, you received your MFA at the age of 52. That inspires me. Were you always interested in photography?

Pinky Bass: I had never even thought about photography until I went to grad school, took Photo 101, and fell in love.

K.B.: What were some of your hopes and dreams as a photographer when you enrolled as a student?

P.B.: I headed to Georgia State University to do drawing and painting. It turned out that was NOT my voice!!

Banana Baby, © Pinky/MM Bass

K.B.: You refer to your exhibition Threads of (dis)Integration as an“anti-retrospective”. If the definition of “retrospective” is both “looking at the past” and “an exhibition of work that spans your career”, what is an anti-retrospective?

P.B.: Anti-retrospective was a descriptive word chosen by Elizabet Elliot, Executive Director/Curator, at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center. My thought was that because I have involved some 30 people and various other touch points in the exhibition in one way or another it is not a strict retrospective of my work.  I am much enamored of the Ubuntu philosophy which translates basically as “I am because we are.”

entwined, © Pinky/MM Bass, Carolyn DeMeritt

Transparencies, © Pinky/MM Bass, Carolyn DeMeritt

KB: Pinky, not only does your exhibition title include ‘thread’ but you have hand-embroidered your own work and portraits made by Carolyn DeMeritt who has photographed you for over 30 years. I read, in entwined, the book you published together, that you tend to think of this stitching as bringing your collaboration full circle. Would you say more about that?

PB: Hmm, I don’t remember that I said that about full circle, but I definitely believe that my life, like a tapestry, has threads that have encoded themselves in me throughout my web of people, materials, experiences, and feelings.

KB: You and Carolyn have written about loss as part of the journey of creating entwined. Has working on this project together been cathartic?

PB: My stitching on photographs was not intended as a catharsis but has in fact acted that way on more than one level.

KB What inspired you to begin stitching anatomical features?

PB Going with my sister through the various stages of her cancer (and being curious about what was going on in her body) put me in touch with the amazing anatomical drawings of the internal organs of the human figure (already at the center of my photographic imagery).  When I saw a postcard of Our Lady of Guadalupe that had been stitched on I decided to give it a try and was blown away by the discoveries and magic moments that produced.

CMIO Neck, © Pinky/MM Bass

Revelation, © Pinky/MM Bass

Fran’s Scorpio, © Pinky/MM Bass, Carolyn DeMeritt

KB: Would you give an example of how the people, places, and things, you describe as “connective threads” have altered your work?

PB: I first met Carolyn when she came to a talk I was giving. I had gotten to know Kitty Couch, a master ceramicist, at the Studies Abroad program in Cortona, Italy and we became close friends and collaborators. I was displaying a number of images of Kitty with whom (as it turns out) Carolyn had studied ceramics. Some of my favorite images by Carolyn have included my body covered in clay slip (Arms up from Clay Series).

lay Bodies #1, with Kitty Couch © Pinky/MM Bass

Meeting Cordelia,© Pinky MM/Bass, Carolyn

Fran’s Zodiac, © Pinky/MM Bass

Belly Beast, © Pinky/MM Bass

KB: Banana Baby, Belly Beast, and Body Nostalgia are just a few of your pinhole photographs. Please share a bit of the story behind these images and your homemade cameras.

PB: In 1993-94 I organized an event in Oaxaca, Mexico.  A number of artists were invited (including Carolyn) to join me for a week or two exploring the magic of Mexico and pursuing their own artistic expressions. Many villages in the state of Oaxaca have their own unique craft expressions, such as the wood-carved winged lion creature in Belly Beast. The image seemed to express for me the struggle one of the participants was having.  Probably my favorite camera is The Bible With Two Points of View – a hollowed-out copy of The Bible as Literature which had two pinhole apertures allowing more than one image to imprint on the Polaroid Pos/Neg film I was addicted to using. This allowed me to make a nude photograph indoors and mix it with an outdoor image of nature as seen in Banana Baby.  Body Nostalgia was the first in a series about my aging body, an interest which has become a major focus in my collaboration with Carolyn, in her series Infinite Grace.

Soul’s Intervention, © Pinky/MM Bass, Carolyn DeMeritt

Backlit Skeleton, © Pinky/MM Bass

 KB: Your work has been described as “defying artistic taboos.” Is standing up to artistic constraints an intentional part of your work or did it arise from exploring the themes you mentioned earlier?

PB: Originally it was not intentional but as images and treatment of materials and working with Carolyn continued, ideas and concepts drew my attention. I found it exciting to push edges and find explanations for why I was led to certain thoughts and ideas that fit with what I was doing.

 KB: In entwined, Patrick Saleeby writes: “Camp Pinky became a legendary place, a joining of forces that resulted in a variety of creative endeavors… It was clear: Camp Pinky was where much of the magic happened.  Pinky took on a mythological presence in my mind. Camp Pinky did too.” 

I am so curious about it. Is Camp Pinky ongoing?

PB: I would like to think it is ongoing though not as intentionally or as often as before.  In large part I think it is about an attitude of adventure, exploration, sharing, and being open to that spirit in us that wants to expand and grow and experience.

Karen Bullock is a photographer living in Alabama. She is known for her documentary-style images of the American South, with a focus on expressions of faith, considerations of home, and the enduring spirit of nature. Her practice uses vivid color and light to explore the unheard voice, via gesture, sense of place, and mood. During a three-month cross-country road trip with her husband and their two dogs in 2023, Karen began a new project and is working to complete it.

Follow on Instagram: @karenbpix