It was February when Monica Russell was walking back to her car from the 2016 Art Shanties Project on the White Bear Lake Ramsey County Beach. From a distance, she looked back at the event that harbored artists’ talent in an unusual environment. “I thought, ‘that’s pretty interesting,’” Russell says. “All the art shanties at the time were pretty far from the shoreline.”
Compelled by the unintended placement of positive and negative space, Russell used a Canon 70D camera with a 24-70mm lens to capture a white landscape peppered with people and makeshift buildings.
Russell’s interest in creativity, especially the act of documenting the world around her, prompted her to take up photographywhen she was in school. Portrait-style photos and weddings are a few of the things Russell likes to document. She continues to hone her creative skills as a designer at NewStudio Architecture in White Bear Lake.
