CAROLINE GRAY
About Caroline Gray
Caroline Gray is a California‑based photographer whose work is a dialogue between human presence and the natural world. Attentive to composition, color, and the psychological qualities of light, she approaches her work with the sensitivity of a painter.
Born in Kuala Lampur, Gray discovered photography when she received her first camera at an early age igniting a lifelong fascination with landscape, color, and the poetic potential of the lens. Capturing aerial views of the Himalayan mountains on family flights to her father’s tea plantation in Darjeeling set the stage for a creative career that would eventually span numerous continents and multiple mediums.
Raised in Canterbury, UK, Gray relocated to Southern California over twenty‑five years ago. Her visual voice truly matured amid the clarity of West Coast light with its resplendent skies and the dynamic interplay of land and sea.
Her recent work explores the theme of dancers suspended in water, within its undercurrents, and the emotions they invoke. As Gray has said, “I am transfixed by the sensuousness of the human body in water,” using her keen affinity for light and fluid form to reveal “the beauty of humanity alongside the vastness of the natural world.”
She frames the motion of her figures within color and light to craft images of ephemeral beauty. Working primarily with a Nikon D810 and favoring minimal digital manipulation, Gray strives to preserve the spontaneous grace and authentic atmosphere of each moment. “Nature," in her words, "offers a vocabulary for the exploration… of our human emotions… more nuanced, more immediate, than words.”
Gray’s work has been exhibited widely in California and the United Kingdom, including solo and group shows in Whitstable, Santa Monica, Malibu, 29 Palms, and Topanga. Her photography has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on the cover of Den Norske Israelsmisjo, among other publications.
Alongside her photographic practice, Gray also paints in watercolor and mixed media, with works featured in gallery exhibitions and annual art publications. Today, she lives and works in Santa Monica, CA, continuing to explore the ever‑renewing possibilities of light, water, and the expressive capacity of the human form.