Jane Eaton Hamilton has been involved in the arts since she first started sketching the horses on her family’s farm in Ontario (they raised hunters and jumpers). These days, Jane can still be found sketching at the Vancouver art studio, Basic Inquiry.
Jane attended university in the US. living in St Louis, Phoenix and NYC, then, back in Canada, started her career as a therapist to autistic kids. It was her dream to write, though, and after having two daughters and dabbling in darkroom photography, she published six books (fiction, poetry and non-fiction). Jane published short work in such publications as Macleans, the Globe and Mail, Seventeen magazine, The New York Times, and the Air Canada magazine, En Route (where her photography also appeared). Her award-winning writing career ended on a great note when her fiction took first prize in the prestigious CBC Literary Award, in 2003.
Jane grew tired of solitude, took a huge, expansive breath, and switched to photography in 2000, using film to capture popular flower and fine art images, which now hang in private collections around Vancouver and across North America. Jane is also a Master Gardener widely known for her sensuous flower photographs, produced in limited editions of 5 or 25. Her own garden was nominated for best front garden of Vancouver, and her prize-winning garden photography has been exhibited at Kew Gardens in the UK.
Her first love has always been kids, and it is no wonder her photography swiftly took her in that direction. She loves spending time with children and lights up behind the camera to capture the special, genuine moments–the silly giggles, the solemn gazes–that speak to who a child really is. “To photograph a newborn just fresh from the womb is the purest form of beauty imaginable. Making the first images of a life is my greatest love and biggest gift, and I count myself lucky to click the shutter when one can still count the number of breaths that new life has drawn.”
Jane makes artistic images that will grace walls and bookshelves for generations to come. She loves to imagine a mom generations hence pointing at an image and saying to her little child, Look, this was Gramma when she was just a few days old!
Jane is married to Vancouver physician, Joy Masuhara; they have two grown daughters. Recreationally, she is crazy about figure drawing, dancing, and, yup, plants. She also likes hefting weights at the gym. Jane believes in giving back to the community. She is a fprmer Area Coordinator and still a volunteer photographer for the important organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, which provides remembrance photography for families who lose their children soon after birth. As well, she participated in the Giving is Awesome holiday photography event in 2008-09, each of which provided a comprehensive photography package to a family in need (and some goodies for the nominator, too!)
She has also run Cash for Comments, where Jane donated a can of food to a favourite rotating charity for every comment left on her blog. In 2009, Jane donated $1500 to the Vancouver Food Bank.
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