Debbie O Lucas was born and raised in Northeastern Ohio and has made her home in North Carolina since the early 80s.  She is known as Debbie O because her maiden name was so difficult to pronounce. Debbie is happiest when traveling, exploring new places, meeting people, and creating memories. Photography is an essential part of those experiences; ask anyone who knows her.

 

Debbie's passion for photography began in college when one of her biology professors taught her the basics of photography and darkroom techniques. Soon she began shooting nature photographs both outdoors and through a microscope and she took a few photography classes.

 

Her focus on photography waned while she concentrated on family and glass ceilings.  In the late 1980s when she won her company’s photography contest for the second year in a row, she began to pursue photography in earnest.  Debbie continued to hone her craft primarily through practice and a few additional classes, the most influential being a workshop at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.  It was there that Debbie learned to slow down, explore macro landscapes, and develop her voice.

 

Debbie’s photography is focused on nature and the outdoors.  Over the years Debbie has developed an eye for creating unique images of ordinary objects such as water, sand, and flowers. The genesis of this is when she took an intro photography class in college and had an assignment to take an interesting image of something most people would overlook or think of as dirty or ugly.  She took a closeup image of a rusty grate of an outdoor grill; the pattern and texture caught her eye. That eye for patterns and textures is evident in her images of water reflections. In some images the viewer will recognize objects such as buildings and boats; others are a palette of colors and patterns that look like an abstract painting. Debbie’s photography blurs boundaries between photography and painting.

 

Debbie’s work has been juried into various art exhibits and has placed first in photography and visual art competitions. Her work is displayed in residential, healthcare, corporate settings, and private collections. 

 

Debbie captures the stark and finite beauty of the departing moment, when the ordinary becomes the extraordinary, when the real appears surreal.