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~Jenny G. Bowen~
Self-Portrait
(The Entertainer)

In my early childhood I was inspired by a great man who held a talent for photography. Following the Pearl Harbor attacks, my grandfather was drafted out of high school. He left the impoverished mountains of Kentucky to join the United States Army, where he was trained in motion and still photography. During his 33 years of active photography, he documented royalty and celebrities of the day. He was later offered a position as a White House staff photographer in the Nixon administration, but declined as he did not want to relocate his family to the Washington DC area. Along with my grandfather’s good senses, the knowledge and admiration for the power of the photograph was passed down through the generations onto me.

With my earnest passion for photography, I consistently perceive a world of light, color, texture and pattern; and how best to frame images so as to document moments of existence in a visually stimulating manner will evoke and hopefully inspire the viewer. The photograph has the capability to document a moment for information and communication purposes. Perhaps more notably, the photograph also has the power to create a self-sustained moment with the viewer that can motivate emotions, thoughts, ideas, and action.

I have been managing and manipulating the camera for over 12 years. I was trained academically at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, one of the leading liberal arts schools in the country. My primary emphasis in photography is documenting people and events in history. I have recorded rallies, protests, parades, and other gatherings that allow access to passionate moments. Several of my photos have been published by local media, and I have exhibited along the east-coast.

My life's goal is to create beauty in the broadest sense. By encouraging my talents to the utmost degree and stimulating affirmative action in the community, I hope to cause positive change in my immediate world. I believe that beauty starts on a personal level and ripples outward, person-to-person, and it the individual's goal should be to inspire others to achieve their own great feats.

It is my sincerest hope that this photo documentary will bring the community of Asheville closer together, and that from the relationships that form – great things will come. For ours is a great community which is capable of even greater accomplishments.