Artistic improvisation has always been my compass. I work from the belief that depth of engagement—whether momentary or sustained—is what allows an image to hold emotional weight. My practice is rooted in forming genuine connections, letting the authenticity of those encounters shape the work rather than imposing a predetermined narrative.

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Photography entered my life in the moment I lost all central vision in my left eye. Initially, it felt like a narrowing, but ultimately brought an opening of aperture—an invitation to see differently. That shift brought me into dialog with a long lineage of photographers who have used altered perception as a creative engine –– from the early Pictorialists who embraced imperfection as expressive, to mid‑century humanists who understood that clarity is emotional before it is ever hits our retinas. Vision loss dismantled my assumptions about precision and control, opening a space where intuition leads and the inherent instability of creation becomes a source of energy rather than resistance.

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As my photography evolved, I found myself in conversation with the broader history of the medium: especially the psychological charge of portraiture and the experimental impulses of post‑modern image‑makers who blurred boundaries between documentation and invention. I’m drawn to a lineage of artists who use the camera not as a recorder of fact but as a tool for revealing the unseen—what lies beneath the obvious image.

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I see my practice as a reminder that vision is not merely optical; it is relational, embodied, and deeply subjective.

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BIO

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Chehalis Hegner's work was featured in the exhibition Hokusai, Inspiration and Influence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2023) and at the Seattle Museum of Art (2024.) She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the US and Europe including: The Griffin Museum of Photography (MA), Turn Park Art Space Museum & Sculpture Park (MA), The Photographic Resource Center (Boston, MA), Catherine Edelman Gallery (Chicago) The Art Institute of Boston, Maryland Art Place (Baltimore), St. Gauden’s National Historic Site (Cornish, NH), The Cultural Center (Varigotti, Italy), Perspective Gallery (Evanston, IL), Interlochen Arts Academy (MI), The MIT Museum (Cambridge, MA), The Rey Center (Waterville Valley, NH), University of Massachusetts (Lowell), University of Texas (Austin), Institute of Contemporary Art (Portland, ME) and The National Gallery of Art in Kosovo.

 

In 2005 Hegner received her MFA in Photography at Lesley University's College of Art and Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

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She received awards in two categories in the  2020 and 2018 Julia Margaret Cameron Awards. In 2010 she received The Gjion Mili Photography Prize (Kosovo.)

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Publications include solo features in Fotonostrum Magazine, Portfolio Magazine, Shadow and Light Magazine, and Tangram magazine's Going Into Wonder, photographs on the creative process and kinetic sculptures of Arthur Ganson. Her photographs have appeared in SHOTS fine art photo magazine, select book title covers, and Sotheby's catalog, featuring her portrait of William Louis Dreyfus. 

    

Chehalis served as a faculty member within the Department of Art and Design at The University of Massachusetts until 2015. She is currently a full-time artist and co-founder of Halo Hill, a startup near Chicago whose mission is to foster arts programming and the environment. 

    

Hegner serves on jury panels, is currently a private photography mentor and workshop instructor at Halo Hill Studios. She was a member of ASMP and SPE during her academic university career. She served on the boards of The Hegner Family Foundation and The Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, where she focused her efforts on strategic planning, development, and programming. 

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