Skyelar Hawkins Photography

Biography: Frances Skyelar Hawkins

Skyelar Hawkins is currently living in Omaha, NE where she is working on the photographic project, "The Fairy Tales of Mistress Goat Delilah." This project has been her main focus since May of 2006. She had her first solo exhibition at the Darkroom Gallery in October of 2002 in Omaha, NE.

Skyelar graduate from Hastings College, Hastings, NE, and NE Wesleyan University in the spring of 1993 with a BA in Art History and Theater. After graduating from college she moved to New York City where she discovered photography through an assignment for an acting class where she photographed a production of the play Vanities. She shifted directions with her creative interests and started attending school in photography at the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography until the fall of 1999 when she moved back to Omaha, NE. In February of 2001 she attended a workshop on photographing people at the Santa Fe Photography Workshops in Santa Fe, NM. During her critique in class, the participants were surprised to learn that the pictures in her portfolio of drag queens and nightclubs were taken in and around Omaha, NE, and not from her time living in New York. This led to the idea of photographing a project on contrasts centering on the drag queen scene in Omaha. The idea for photographing this eclectic and unique community of people in a conservative rural setting bestowed a photography project on contrasting views set against the socially conservative backdrop of Nebraska, America's heartland.

Skyelar presented "The Sons of the Midwest" project in July of 2002 at the Sam Abell Project Workshop. Skyelar prints all of her own photographic work on 16X20 and 11X14 archival fiber based paper.

Skyelar's focus in photography is on photojournalism and documentary work. She has been reviewed in The Reader Newspaper, a weekly periodical in Omaha, NE and her portfolio has been featured in the March/April 2003 issue of PhotoVision Magazine. She is a recipient of the 2002 Getty Images Educational Grant.