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Rita Quigley
Rita Quigley: The Photographer ’s Sense of Place Written by Brian D’Ambrosio
Knowingly or not, a person chooses a home because of who he or she is. Rita Quigley’s hometown of Missoula is full of who she is – every certainty and distinction. She is a photographer who uses the medium to express her love of ghost towns, ghost art signage, bygone structures, blue skies, colorful fish, garaged vehicles, fence posts, horses, and snow-capped peaks.
“When I go hiking, traveling, fishing, or camping, I’m looking for a story to remember,” says Quigley. “Every picture tells a story. My pictures tend to tell the story of Missoula and what people like to do here. They like rivers, forests, and outdoors.” Rita Quigley is diligent. She has a sense of what’s sacred, and a strong grip on elegance. She has the ability to marvelously mix emotion and geometry together in a single instant – a skillful trait frequently lacking in the clutter of the contemporary photo-art market.
Quigley’s work shows us that it is naïve to think that we are in control of our destinies. There are too many variables to account for. There are too many random collisions. Her catalog is proof positive that photography is not documentary, but intuition, a poetic practice. It's more about being sensitive to coincidence and chance than being a control freak. You can't go looking for the right shot; you can't want it badly, or you will not find it. Photographic treasures are not found by those who search.
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“You can’t force it,” says Quigley, who was born deaf. She overcame that barrier by developing her sense of vision into pictures. “You have to let it happen naturally.”
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Quigley says that she has an inventory of approximately 16,000 photos. Henri Cartier-Bresson, once said that your first 10,000 photographs are your worst, so at least Quigley has that milestone behind her. Which of these photos deserve to make the cut? That topic is often debated between Rita and her husband James, who serves as her advisory board, custom framer, and loving fan. “What sells is what I pick,” laughs James, who sits alongside Rita and I, at Hunter’s Bay Coffee, a few minutes before the start of his wife’s July First Friday presentation. In truth, sometimes Quigley has to compromise and market those photos that the masses can better relate to. Though, that’s not to suggest that she doesn’t shoot as she pleases, for rusty Studebakers and old junkers compromise a fair amount of the showing. To look at one of Quigley’s photos is to comprehend that photography is an art form of line, color, light sensitivity, shadow, form, and the interplay and balance of these elements. We see that photography is a long haul, a lifelong apprenticeship, a never-ending attempt to seek out that one moment that can be frozen in time, the one second when the juxtaposition of art and actuality are inseparable.
For Quigley, photography is a spontaneous impulse to seize the split second of abandoned luncheonettes, striking sunsets, familiar landmarks like The Wilma, and endless highways, and make them eternal. From photos of tiny
shacks hawking antiques, to colorfully expressive building balconies, we feel the innovation of her expression.
What Quigley’s aspires to perfect, perhaps Cartier-Bresson summed up best in his book The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers: “To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”
What does Quigley’s work say about her? “It says that I am a lucky person and very fortunate to live where I do,” says Quigley.
It also says that she has spent considerable time honing her craft.
For some, photography is looked at as a simple and easy pastime; it is, however, a varied and unclear process, in which the only basic commonality among its users is in the instrument. Quigley understands that Missoula is crammed with many skilled photographers, all of whom know just how laborious and knotty the medium’s learning curve can be. “It’s difficult to be in a town with so many talented people and to get your name out there,” says Quigley. “It’s competitive here. After 10 years, I feel as if I am a known photographer. I’ll continue to capture what I see.”