Image Description: A color photograph of Karen seated on a stool in a bright, spacious studio with large windows and hardwood floors. She has long brown hair with subtle highlights and wears glasses, a black suit jacket, and matching black pants. She is turned slightly to the left, with one hand resting on her lap and the other gently touching her hair, conveying a calm presence.
Karen Graham is a photographer based in Hamilton, Ontario. Her work explores stillness, emotion, and the sensory experience of being human through a documentary and movement-inspired lens. She seeks to capture the quiet, unspoken moments that reveal truth, depth, and beauty in imperfection. Being a deaf photographer has given me a heightened sense of visual awareness, allowing me to see and capture details that often go unnoticed. I believe that love is in the little moments, the subtle glances, the quiet smiles, the gentle touches and my goal is to preserve these moments.
As a deaf photographer, my work explores the quiet, often overlooked moments that exist beyond the noise of the world. I’m drawn to stillness, shadows, and the raw, unspoken beauty of life—elements I perceive more vividly through my lived experience. My hearing loss doesn’t limit my art; it deepens my sensitivity to visual and emotional nuance. This series reflects how I move through the world differently, inviting viewers to slow down and witness the power in silence, presence, and imperfection.
Stillness Between Sound
This black-and-white photograph depicts a woman lying down on a pebbly beach, with a piano keyboard beneath her outstretched body. The woman lies on her side at the shoreline, back to us, facing the open water and distant horizon. She has light skin tone, long dark hair, and wears a backless white dress that clings to her legs and gathers at her ankles in the wet sand. Beneath the weight of her hips and torso, the keyboard sinks into the wet sand. The use of black-and-white photography emphasizes the textures of the pebbles, rippling water, and the human form.