Today we’d like to introduce you to Nancy McGregor.
Hi Nancy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
At age twelve, I began weaving my world through a diary and an Instamatic camera, capturing life’s quiet moments. By seventeen, I traded up for a 35mm film camera and a poetry journal. The funny thing is, however, I didn’t think I was very good at it because my photos didn’t look like other people’s. I doubted my skill, relegating photography and writing to hobbies while I climbed the corporate ladder as a Senior Benefit Analyst for a health insurance company.
Life, however, had other plans. A divorce left me a single mother to a disabled child, demanding flexibility a 9-to-5 couldn’t offer. I pivoted to freelance makeup artistry, where I also styled, lit, and transformed sets — only to watch photographers earn the big bucks for a single shutter click. That sparked a change. With a delightfully unpolished portfolio, I applied to the Creative Circus in Atlanta and, to my astonishment, was accepted. There, brilliant professors and peers revealed my “different” vision wasn’t a flaw — it was my signature.
During orientation, our Director of Photography brandished a thick compendium of the world’s finest images: Communication Arts’ annual award winners, featuring titans like National Geographic, ESPN, and The New York Times. “This is the gold standard,” he said. “Most of us will never win.” In April 2025, I claimed my third Excellence in Photography Award from this 66-year-old competition, joining a rare echelon—only four or five women worldwide have won three or more times. It’s an Oscar-like honor and I’m humbled to stand among such giants.
My photography, now, is focused on fine art prints and crafting elegant spaces. Art goes beyond mere decor. It transcends the paint color, the style, and the shiplap. I believe your art choices are a commentary on your belief in yourself.
My poetry, once a quiet companion, took flight after my second win, culminating in “Winged Soul: Egrets in Flight, A Photographic Poem” blending my images and words. This year, I’m launching poetry posters, expanding my online store to share written beauty with those who cherish it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No road worth traveling is ever smooth, and mine’s been a mosaic of potholes and peaks. Professionally, commercial photography’s male-dominated landscape posed a steep climb. As a woman, I faced skepticism, and my disinterest in weddings or portraits set me apart. My makeup and styling background lured me toward fashion, but after bumpy trials, I found my niche in products, food, and industrial work. Yet, those felt like stepping stones. Fine art photography answered my soul’s call to weave beauty, depth, and richness into visual prints. My work, most often finds a place in the homes of quiet greatness and in the palaces of everyday queens.
Personally, my challenges began young, rooted in family trauma—domestic violence and the loss of a sibling. Those scars shaped me, but I chose kindness over anger or a life of victimhood. That was a conscious choice that guided me through life’s craters. Raising a disabled child, born at 26 weeks, and surviving a rare tumor (an Extra-Adrenal Paraganglioma) tested my resolve. I might mutter a few “Pirate Words” when life swerves — say, when I once spilled coffee on a client’s mood board — but I see hardships as lessons, not blows. My philosophy? Skip merrily down the road, smile intact, no matter the mud.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a member of Arts on the Coast gallery in Richmond Hill, GA where some of my recent work hangs. I also have work hanging in the Estes gallery in the lobby of Great Oaks Bank.
My work online is house at ArtMajeur in Montpellier, France. They’ve made my entire collection available online. In 2021, Samuel Charmetant was appointed to the rank of Knight of Ordre National du Mérite for founding ArtMajeur and I think art is special when it’s purchased from a gallery with a resident Knight on board.
While I use many different techniques in my photographic art, I lean to a vintage style. I like the misty dreams of Pictorialism, born in the late 1860s. It approached the camera as an artist’s tool, like the paintbrush and palette. The camera was once seen as a tool for creating art rather than recording reality. The Pictorialists were drawn to the camera’s artistic qualities. They used it as an escape from reality rather than as a tool to grab a snapshot. They preferred a romantic artistic composition, such as the tableaux. In the darkroom, they expended considerable time and effort to go beyond development of the film. Their goal was to create unique works of art. To do that they discovered new techniques and time-consuming processes, such as gum bichromate, chrysotype (gold) and platinum printing, and engraved photogravures. Their work was printed and presented as part of their art process. Even the frame was also part of the artist’s composition of the overall finished piece. Today, I use a digital darkroom to recreate old Master styles and other traditional painting styles along with my photography prints.
One of my personal projects is the study of misty, dreamy images of women over 50. It’s a project called the Illustrious Woman book project. The images are shot in a soft pictorial style. There are feminine pastel satin gowns and each subject is holding a pair of high-heeled shoes that are no longer comfortable to wear. The images are symbolic of how older women remain an iconic mainstay of feminine grace and strength. The shoes are a symbol of all she has lost in her journey but found out she no longer needs to be beautiful.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risk, to me, is what the fearful call change. I see it, in many way, as Richard Bach wrote in Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. He said, ““What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” The truest risks are spiritual and emotional — daring to love after loss, learning anew when cozy ruts beckon, or being authentic in a world that craves conformity. My poem “Rebel” claims our birthright to be ourselves, a quiet defiance that feels riskier than any leap.
I’ve taken risks that shaped my path. Leaving a stable corporate job as a single mother to pursue freelance makeup artistry was a gamble, especially with a disabled child relying on me. Applying to the Creative Circus with a scrappy portfolio—half-expecting rejection—was another. Each risk felt like swimming upstream, but they led to my rare wins with Communication Arts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.photospoon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photospoon_nan/
