A Gallery for Fine Photography presents Held Light by Wendi Schneider, a collection of fifteen photographs printed with pigment ink on kozo paper over gold leaf. Held Light gathers works from Italy shaped in the wake of disorientation, where heightened perception, physical constraint, and the quiet persistence of light became a form of pause and shelter.
Wendi Schneider writes :
We arrived in Tel Aviv in the early hours of October 7, 2023, and awoke to sirens directing us to shelter as the war began. In those first days, we did not know whether we were safe; day and night were marked by the sounds of interceptions overhead, rendering the experience surreal and disorienting. We were able to leave a day early, carrying with us the weight of uncertainty and sorrow for the lives irrevocably altered.
Held Light brings together works made in Venice and Florence in the days that followed. In Venice, my senses were heightened. I experienced the city less as image than as atmosphere—mesmerized and calmed by the lapping water, then interrupted by the percussive sounds of passing boats. This rhythm of ease and disruption mirrored an underlying unease, shaping a way of seeing that was attentive, restrained, and deeply quiet. Looking slowed. Attention narrowed. Light became something to notice, hold, and trust.
In Florence, the physical effects of recent stress limited my movement, confining the work to the grounds of Villa Cora, once home to Empress Eugénie, who restored the estate after the fall of Napoleon III—a history that quietly echoes themes of restoration and endurance. Our room overlooked the adjacent Giardino del Bobolino, offering a grounding presence during the first days, when leaving the room was not yet possible. As my strength returned, wider scenes were photographed from the villa’s rooftop. Within this narrowed geography, the work settled into pause, held by constraint and the subtle passage of time.
The works, rendered in restrained, subdued color, are inspired in part by Pictorialist photogravures and halftones in my collection by Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, and Alvin Langdon Coburn. Their nuanced tonal sensibility and emphasis on atmosphere over description inform my approach. Gilding heightens luminosity quietly and responsively, calling forth the image through light itself as conditions shift and the viewer moves. It introduces a measured instability—luminosity that settles and then shifts.
Printed on Japanese kozo papers and finished with hand-applied precious metals on the verso, each photograph remains in dialogue with light. Antique frames are integral to the work, chosen for their patina, history, and shape, often echoing the image just enough to allow it to breathe. Image and frame function as a single object—vessels that hold light, material, and accumulated time in quiet alignment. These works are not documents of place, but impressions shaped by disorientation, where light, surface, and time offer quiet shelter.
Wendi Schneider
Born in Memphis in 1955 into a family of artists, Schneider studied art history and painting before turning to photography in the 1980s. Initially using photos as references for oil paintings, she began combining the two, developing the layered style that defines her work today.
After working in New Orleans and New York in photography, design, and advertising, she moved to Denver in 1994. In 2012, she launched States of Grace, her signature series featuring flora and fauna.
Her work is held in major museum collections, widely exhibited, and represented by galleries across the U.S. and internationally. She also collects turn-of-the-century art and serves on the board of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center.
Wendi Schneider’s Held Light will be on display through August 1, 2026.
A Gallery For Fine Photography
7457 St. Charles Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70118
www.agallery.com
