Women’s Leadership

Flee Kieselhorst

A picture is worth a thousand words, but to Flee Kieselhorst, more than words drive her passion for photography. Her stunning photography captures the raw emotion that people express that often goes unnoticed in day-to-day life.

For those who remember Flee's time at Chatham, her photos often appeared on walls throughout campus, whether for a gallery exhibition or class project, or even as an eye-catching image in someone's office. After graduation she took to the road and drove across the United States from Pennsylvania to California for a month with nothing but her cameras and herself. Once in California she entered the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and is currently in the final months of completing her thesis project in Lima, Peru. Like the many types of photography she experimented with at Chatham, she is eschewing digital cameras for traditional black and white portraitures using a medium format negative. Each subject is presented in a photograph that seeks to explore the core of each person's personality, show a connection to space, and highlight differences in culture. She rents a darkroom in Lima developing all of her photos by hand â€“ "It's fulfilling to see an image come together from negative to bath to print."

Adjusting to the face to face nature of life in Lima, she explains, has been one of the upsides of her thesis. "No e-mails, no calls, just face-to-face meetings." She has experienced the downside to traveling abroad as well, after her two cameras and a backpack full of equipment were stolen and had to be replaced.

It's not all work for Flee while she is in Lima though. As well as daily updating her photoblog she has explored the jungles near Iquitos; eaten worms; fallen in love with Peruvian Hairless Dogs (one of which will become her new pet when she returns to the States); caught and eaten piranhas in the Amazon; and slept in a hammock on a cargo boat for four days.

Flee credits her Chatham experience for being able to handle herself in a foreign country, "It has been infinitely helpful to me. Although I am a young woman alone in a developing country with a different language and a different culture, I feel confident in my ability to handle anything that comes my way. Chatham really did help shape me to be world-ready."

Come December Flee will return home to Oakland, California and her two Italian Greyhounds â€“ as well as the new Peruvian Hairless. After graduation she hopes to one day teach at the University level and display photography in fine art galleries.

To see Flee's work you can go to her website www.fotosbyflee.com or follow her trip in Peru on her photoblog at www.photoblog.com/FKieselhorst.