Local photographer wins international awards

Some may say it was in Darlene Spell’s blood to become a professional photographer. Cameras have always been a part of her life.

Her mother received her first camera, a Brownie box, when she was 9 years old in 1939, and her father started taking photos while stationed in Germany during the Korean War.

Spell, 59, said her earliest memory of photography was at 7 or 8 years old after getting a camera. After graduating from school, she asked for a single-lens reflex camera to take better photos on film. She said her father is the one who taught her how to use the correct shutter speed and exposure to get beautiful photos.

“I have always been interested in photography because there were so many cameras in the family, it just kind of came naturally to me,” Spell said.

Spell, who now lives in Scott City, is a nature photographer, taking photos of wildlife and landscapes. She does not do family photos or cityscapes — strictly nature.

"Behind the Ice Curtain", the first photo Spell won an international award with back in 2011.Submitted

Spell said she loves taking photos of nature.

“I love being out in nature. It is where I can reconnect and just hear all the wildlife around me. The clean, fresh air and the environment that I am in, it is where I feel most alive.”

Starting in 2005, Spell began taking professional photos and did many juried expeditions in Southeast Missouri, St. Louis and Nashville, Tennessee, and in an online gallery in Texas. In 2011, she entered her first international award competition in the online gallery in Texas with a photo called “Behind the Ice Curtain”. She had taken it while on a hike at Hickory Canyon in New Offenburg, Missouri, with her son.

“There were just these huge, massive ice formations and I saw this opening and a marked tree. So I went into the cave and looked out to see the marked tree through the opening of the ice curtain. I did a spin on words with what they call the Iron Curtain in Germany,” Spell said about her first winning photo.

Spell took a few years off to have a different career with herbs, as well as to take care of some health issues. After her health improved, Spell realized she missed taking photos and got heavily back into photography.

Spell’s determination paid off as over the last year — she has won more than 10 international awards from multiple juried expeditions.

One photo she took in Union County in Southern Illinois was of two bald eagles, an adult and a juvenile out in a field with an armadillo they had found. She submitted it to a juried exhibition in New York City and was one of 27 North American photographers to make it into the exhibition called “Photoville”.

From there, Spell cast her eyes on open calls as well as galleries, and she noticed there was a gallery in Los Angeles that showed off her work.

“I looked into open calls and saw there was this big gallery out in Los Angeles and won an international award with them, and because I was in New York City, a couple of galleries spotted my work and contacted me and I entered through one of them and have won some international awards with them, too. Between the two, I have won over 10 awards this year with multiple photos.”

Coming up in December, Spell will be traveling to the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri, to take part in an exhibition.