Claire Fishman

I’m a clinical psychologist by profession. My passion has been to explore people in their natural environments, people and families struggling with emotional conflicts and behavioral deficits. When I inherited the role of family photographer—my husband, a perfectionist with the camera and not quick enough to capture the moment, my preferred m.o.—a new passion emerged as I expanded my purview from my children to other relationships, individuals, and settings. My mantra has been “up the street and around the corner” as I seek to “make the ordinary extraordinary.” People and spaces transformed—it can be humorous or serious, but either way it’s seeing something noteworthy in the otherwise commonplace, mundane, or unexpected.

Over the years, new and different ways to accomplish this transformation have emerged—accidently, or by sudden inspiration (strategies, often traditional photographic techniques, are used in ways that could even be considered “incorrect”). The end result—an unexpected perspective, an “aah” experience, from what otherwise would be unimpressive and ignorable. Thus, the man waiting on the 40th floor, a late arrival to a conference hall, an undistinguishable clump of trees coming up on the right with its barely noticed, burly muscular tree in its midst. Or those 2 men—one in suit and tie, the other in a work uniform—jauntingly coming down Main Street perhaps in spirited conversation. Or coming full circle, an adored grandchild caught in an act both universal and commonplace become utterly compelling and extraordinary!

clairefishmanphotography.com