The photographic work of my dearest friend Chehalis Hegner is featured on the cover of the February/March 2007 edition of the Art New England journal.

Part of the Photographic Resource Center’s PRC: P.O.V. Photography Now and in the Next 30 Years show, the featured cover image is entitled Trophy from her series John.

Of the image, Art New England says:

His eyes closed, he submits to the touch, his face emerging out of dark shadows to provide a non-verbal sensory experience to himself and his explorer.

I choose this selection to quote because, in my humble opinion, it characterizes and conveys the artist’s profound strength as an explorer. Not only is Chehalis able to capture a subject in frank honesty, she has a remarkable and perhaps connatural ability to create a safe haven in which the subject can, as Art New England so astutely points out, completely submit. Submission, insight and honest humanity - be it beautiful or grotesque - is, from my vantage, a centerpiece of her work - and I speak here as a subject as well as consumer of her work.