Artist bio:
Emery Ball is an East Coast-based artist, originally from the outskirts of Dallas Texas, and currently residing in Knoxville, Tennessee. Photography remains Emery’s primary focus, but her creative practice extends into drawing and mixed media. Emery’s interest in photography began in early childhood, when she saved to purchase her first camera. She began practicing professionally at 16, while her exploration of drawing began later, at 19.
Emery is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Studio Art with a concentration in Two-Dimensional Art and a minor in Education at the University of Tennessee. Her academic journey includes studying at the Atelier Neo Medici in Monflanquin, France, where she refined her skills in Renaissance painting and drawing.
Notable exhibitions include Peintures, where three oil paintings and a charcoal drawing were featured in Monflanquin, France. Emery has also taught introductory courses in black-and-white film photography and processing at Teruah Creative Arts Camp, Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Artist Statement:
I can’t help but look at the world like it’s already halfway gone, staring everything around me like I’ll never be able to see again. Even the mundane feels like it’s slipping away sometimes, and I have to grab it before it falls through the cracks entirely. There’s heartbreak in forgetting something you swore you’d remember. Sometimes I miss things I can’t even name. That’s why I make art.
Photography is like a sport I am constantly training for. Every exposure is a high-stakes risk—thirty-six tries to make something great. I chase moments that feel permanent and ones that nearly fall apart before they’re caught. It’s the balance between control and the unpredictable—a scientific sport at its core. The thrill is what keeps me going.
My work is a conversation with myself—often an inside joke only I fully understand, shared between me and the photographs. That personal exchange is part of my photography's purpose. The work I create doesn’t exist to tell you anything. It’s simply proof that something was there. And that I was, too. Someone staring at something I promised to never forget is just as much a part of the process as those moments before the shutter was even an option-- when I was a wide-eyed kid desperately trying to memorize the entire universe. What you perceive, and the conclusions you draw about my art, are yours to decide.