Mary works in a variety of media including pinhole photography, painting, and drawing. She has been featured in several solo and group exhibitions in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, the United States, and in Taiwan. Mary’s work is in private and public collections.

Pinhole Photography

Mary is best known for her pictures, which are taken with a pinhole camera. This is a very basic camera that can be constructed out of found materials such as cans or boxes, provided it is made light-tight. This can be done by lining the interior with black construction paper, and taping the sides with black electric tape. A small piece of pie plate or thin brass can be used to make the camera lens. The aperture is made by drilling a tiny hole into the brass or pie plate. This is then attached to the body of the camera. A material such as a piece of cardboard or cork can serve as the camera shutter. When taking the picture, a piece of film or photo paper is placed inside the camera opposite the lens. The shutter is then removed from the camera, and the light enters though the tiny pin hole to expose the film or paper behind. A watch can be used to count the time required to take the picture. This type of camera has no light meter, viewfinder, multi-aperture lens, or other features of standard cameras. A lot of patience and practise is required when using a pinhole camera.

Mary enjoys the abstraction, distortion, uniqueness, and magnification that can be obtained with pinhole photography. In her images, she likes the nostalgic feeling they evoke in the viewer. Mary takes pictures from a worm’s eye view (by placing the camera on the ground). Mary says about her work “When I’m taking a picture, I get down on my knees and study all angles of the subject and try to visualize how the photograph is going to look”, and that although the resulting images are often unpredictable, she finds it exciting.

Mary’s favourite subject matter includes flowers, beaches, rocks, cliffs, old buildings, and shells. She takes black and white pictures, processes the film, and creates the prints in her home darkroom by hand. She hand-colors black and white pieces using Marshall’s Oils.