We must be doing something right because many former members are returning to our camera club.  One that we are currently welcoming back, after a five-year hiatus, is Gitta Gorman, a native of Stockholm, Sweden.  Gorman has traveled back and forth across the ocean on many occasions, living for years at a time in the United States and Canada.  She finally moved to the desert in 1990, as a permanent residence so she could be near her grown children.

“I have one is L.A. and one in Denver but living in Stockholm put me an ocean and continent away from them,” she explained.  “I’m a new grandmother and felt it was time to be closer.   I fell in love with the desert and enjoy nature photography and taking casual pictures of children.”

Gorman developed an interest in photography as a teenager but this hobby had to be put on the back burner for many years due to other obligations. 

“My father was a florist and I grew up in the flower shop,” Gorman said.  “I watched my father make beautiful arrangements for the royal family in Stockholm but during the war you just couldn’t sell flowers so he took up painting.  Due to my temperament and youth I chose to capture beauty with a camera rather than a paintbrush.  However, in the last few years I have discovered that I have my father’s artistic talent as I put my photographs on canvas and embellish them with oil paints.  I do this for pleasure.”

She finds the camera club to be an all-round learning experience.

“It keeps me motivated,” she said.  “The competitions make you work and I look forward to the camaraderie.”

She uses a Minolta Maxxum 350 SI for 35 mm prints.