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Biography

Rita Maas earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York after studying painting at Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. After graduation, Maas pursued a career in still life and food photography, working with top creative directors for over 20 years. Her work has been featured in magazines and advertising campaigns such as Gourmet, Anthropologie, and Whole Foods Market.

Maas’ passion for photography has inspired her to pursue an individual and personal vision, creating a body of artwork that has been selected for numerous international exhibitions and cited for several awards. Her work is included in several international corporate and private collections as well as in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, and Lishui Museum of Photography, Lishui, China.

The artist currently lives in Westchester County, NY, with her husband and son.

Artist Statement

This body of work consists of two distinct series, “Shades and Shadows” and "Skylight Views." These images were taken in my home, a personal and familiar place. They take on temporal qualities of a slow, quiet nature as I observe their constantly shifting features. Shown in sequences, they reflect on the act of deliberately looking.

In Shades and Shadows, I have recorded the light and shadows cast on a window shade. Ever changing in their appearance, yet remaining constant in their physicality; light, and time, transforming the viewer’s experience. Each photograph is a suspended moment, continuous and fleeting.

Skylight Views are observances seen through a skylight. The viewer is invited to look at and through the glass surface, observing the presence of time through the changing seasons and light.

These ephemeral images evoke the passage of time, seasons, and weather, heightening our sense of impermanence. The subject matter becomes the experience of seeing—common encounters in intimate and familiar places, explored moments where content and meaning become inseparable.