Cherie St. Pierre Country: USA I grew up watching my father photograph the family, and every event in the neighborhood such as birthdays, picnics, baptisms, and weddings. In college I majored in Art Education, and photography was a required course which I enjoyed. This was before digital times and so I spent many nights in our basement dark room mixing chemicals for my photo homework. As the images started to appear it was like magic. When I started student teaching (being supervised by a professor) I had to teach photography to middle school students which was fun. In my first job as an elementary art teacher I photographed my students and then had fun placing them inside soda bottles so they looked like they were tiny people imprisoned, or made them huge giants sitting on a tiny school roof. When I posted the comical photos in the hallway my students loved seeing themselves like little elves and/or giants. I traveled a great deal during my 35 years of teaching and presented many photo slide programs to students and teacher organizations.

In my retirement I joined a local photo club which helped me cross the bridge to digital photography. We meet twice a month. The first meeting is Competition Night where each member can submit 6 photos to be critiqued, and the second meeting is Program Night where an expert can present photo techniques, etc. for learning purposes. We also have meet-ups to travel together to visit places of photographic interest. I benefitted from our meetings when a PSA member taught us how to become a photo judge. Also I spent 8 years as the Club Secretary. We do photo charity work for our local cancer hospital called the “Ride For Roswell.”  People are sponsored by friends, relatives, and corporations to ride bicycles along different routes. We each are assigned to a route and we photograph the riders as they pass by us, making sure we photograph the number on their helmet or bike so that they can have a photo after the event has ended. It is a 3 day event which includes great eating. The most important part is the joy we have in raising thousands of dollars for cancer research.

In February 2017 my photo of “Winter in Japan” made the cover of the PSA Journal along with an article I wrote about wildlife in Hokkaido Japan. For the past 3 years I have been a  judge for the PSA Greenhood Scholarship Committee where students majoring in photography can receive a financial award toward the completion of their degree. I enjoyed attending the GPU Photofestival 2017 in the Greek Islands and the GPU Photofestival 2019 in Romania. I am devoted to photography and have traveled to 6 continents. I want to see as much of the world as possible, to experience the multiplicity of worldviews, and the variety of personal and cultural styles, all through my camera. I agree with Rudolph Arnheim, a psychologist of art, “that truly productive thinking in whatever area of cognition, takes place in the realm of imagery.”