The work in Still is a collection of photographs culled from years of Vaughn Sills' time spent photographing on Prince Edward Island. While Sills has long used her camera to reflect on her mother’s life and her own process of grieving, this subset of images focuses on the land and the rural life that continues to shape it. For the first time, these works are presented at Kingston Gallery.

In Still, Sills explores the stillness both of the photograph itself—the way a moment is suspended in time—and of the land, which holds a quiet, steady beauty. Her photographs reflect a deep reverence for the land and for the rhythms of rural life, implying a connection to the steady work of farming and an enduring respect for the environment.

For Sills, photography is a way to bear witness and find sustenance. In this body of work, she invites the viewer to consider the power of stillness—both the stillness of the image and the stillness of a place.Through careful compositions, Sills centers human-made objects, juxtaposing them with vast skies, and draws out subtle colors in the land. These images encourage the viewer to stop, to be still, to revel in what we still have.

Artist Bio

Vaughn Sills’ photography engages two primary, related concerns: the inner lives of people and our deep connection with the natural world. She has received awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (two Artist’s Fellowships in Photography, and twice a Finalist), Artadia Dialogue for Art and Culture, the Polaroid Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the President’s Fund for Faculty Excellence from Simmons University.

Her photographs have been exhibited at prestigious institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Photography, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, SC, the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, as well as botanic gardens and arboretums, including the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, DC, Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum in Boston, and the Botanic Garden at Cornell University.

Sills’ work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the DeCordova Museum, the Harvard Art Museum, Simmons University, the Fidelity and Eaton Vance Collections, as well as numerous private collections. She holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

Two books of Vaughn’s photographs have been published: Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens (Trinity University Press, 2010) and One Family (University of Georgia Press, 2001).