Kimberly Bell Hambor

I always wanted to be an artist when I grew up. Now I have lived over half a century and have been an artist all my life, but I am still waiting to grow up.

The desire to create with the colors, tones, textures of the splendor that surrounds me, has always been a driving force in my life.

My passion for photography began back in 1970 when I first laid eyes on the glossy black and white photographs that my sister had taken for a class at Akron University. My dad, who also took a lot of pictures, converted our basement bathroom into an amazing darkroom. I built a pinhole camera as a seventh grade science project and those first images that I developed, the play of light and hazy lines captured me and flamed my creativity.

I attended the University of Akron and earned a degree in commercial art. After a brief time in Columbus where my work was first shown as fine art, I continued my career with Miller Studio as an advertising photographer/sculptor/product designer. It was a dream job for me, and it was hard to leave but in 1988 I moved to Naples, Florida.

I worked as a graphic artist and participated in local art shows. I received the honor of being the first photographer to show in the “Art in the Park” shows in Naples. Previously, photography was not considered fine art. I started Portfolio Photographics, a stock photo agency and my images were featured in numerous publications including magazines, billboards and coffee table books. 

I began shooting with infrared film in 1989. The deep resonant tones and luminesce of the images created with infrared has become the hallmark of my photographic work.

Through the years, I have been given professional recognition through the acceptance of my work to be shown in many prestigious art shows and galleries from Sanibel Island to New York City and Paris, but the real accomplishment of my work is when it stirs another’s soul. That is why I create, to share the light.

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