Photographs are works of art in which images are painted with light. The human eye frames an image through the lens of the camera. A press of the finger opens the camera's eye to the light that it might claim that image forever. C. Sandra Lopez-Isnardi describes this artistic process as finding order in chaos.

The photographer as artist thus mediates the chaos of our world and hands us back something beautiful--a prayer, a moment of being in which nature reveals God's glory, in the words of Lopez-Isnardi, a selection of whose works are on view in the Marie Louise Trichet Gallery at Wisdom House Retreat and Conference Center in Litchfield, Connecticut. She is Associate Professor of Art & Design, gallery director, and print show director of the Flora Kirsch Beck Gallery at Alma College in Michigan.

While discussing her works on show--traditional silver prints, digital images and works that are a combination of the two--Lopez-Isnardi said her works reflect her experiences as a Roman Catholic woman, as an academic, and as a spiritual seeker. She does not compose her images; life does. She does not digitally alter the content of her photos; she corrects color for accuracy. She brings her darkroom and her PhotoShop experience and other technological expertise to profoundly individual, personal moments of peace and wonder that are beautiful because, she says, "beauty is important to me."

Lopez-Isnardi's photographic eye captures the eternally beautiful wonders of the world and the eternal question of our place in it. Her works suggest the answer--under, with, alongside, and in God. Because beauty is important.

(Image: "Divine Feminine" by C. Sandra Lopez-Isnardi)