– by Doreen Marion Gee –
This is part of a rotating series of articles on members of Sidney Meet Up Women’s Networking Group, featuring women in business on the Saanich Peninsula.
A professional photographer, Monica Reekie doesn’t just point and click. When she takes a photo, Monica immerses herself in the experience, capturing a flash of beauty, a moment in time, a deep emotion or a transcendent pattern of colours. Ultimately Monica wants to open our eyes to the majesty around us, to the beauty in the ordinary.
As we gaze out over the serene cobalt water and lighted boats in the Inner Harbour, Monica Reekie analyses the horizon, catching patterns in red splashes. Travelling fuelled her zeal for photography – Monica wanted to immortalize the diversity around the globe and hold it close forever. To Monica, capturing images parallels everyday life. She muses: “Sometimes it isn’t pretty. It is hard to find the beauty but if you really look closely, you can find something that is beautiful and something to be grateful for.”
In her photography business, Monica sidesteps the panoramic shots that show everything – and nothing. She focuses on that unusual detail, the odd angle that sparks the imagination. It could be eight red things or a wiggly reflection in the water “that somebody else would never notice.” Her mental windows are open to everything, letting anything happen. “Sometimes you just have to stop, look and focus on one thing.” When Monica shot the winning cover photo in Seaside’s contest last September, she aimed for a sense of “absolute calm and stillness” in the glorious misty birth of a Pat Bay sunrise. Monica looks for the nuance, the feeling.
The unconventional artist reveals her inner motivation: “I want to share the beauty that I see with others who can’t see it” because they are too busy, too distracted. The artist never uses photo-editing software; the natural world needs no enhancement. Monica invites us to pay attention to the rapture around us. An iguana on the Galapagos Islands stole her heart: “The detail in her skin and her eyes and nails was beautiful to look at!” In her evolution as an artist, Monica is inspired by the environment and the need to preserve the natural world and the life within it. Her images reflect those hills, trees, waters and wild things that need our protection forever.
“Sometimes when you are on the bottom, you know the beauty is up there and you have to just go for it – because you don’t want to be on the bottom again.” A survivor of “unpleasant” periods in her life, Monica uses her photography to transcend the negative and to infuse wonder and joy back into her existence. Monica’s photography celebrates life. It is all about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.
For contact information, to see Monica’s photos and find out about her upcoming shows, visit www.theartofmonicareekie.com.
Monica thanks Sidney Meet Up for their support.
