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Photo courtesy of Karen Flowers Cagan. A co-founder of Westwood Artists, Karen Flowers Cagen is a photographer who takes photos of Westwood and beyond.
12-09-2023 12:50am
Meet Westwood Artist Karen Flowers Cagan: Westwood Public Library Assistant and Westwood Artists Co-Founder
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Karen Flowers Cagan fell in love with photography about 50 years ago. Her first camera was skinny, with a flash bulb in the corner. It cost $10 and she bought it with her birthday money. She used it for four years, and as a junior in high school, took photos of her friends. Then, her family purchased her a Canon AE-1 for Christmas.
Now as a photographer, Ms. Cagan takes photos of Westwood and beyond, making them into photo cards and photo coasters. While she takes pictures with a digital camera, and has done so for the past 18 years, she still has her Canon AE-1. She would like to use it again, but it is hard to find places to develop film.
“The clarity [of film] is just really rich,” she says. “The photos I got out of it, all the photos of my girls when they were younger . . . I used that camera up until 2005 when I got my first digital camera. Digital cameras are fine, but I have that nostalgia for memory, and those black and white photos of my girls are really special,” says Ms. Cagan. She notes that the photos produced by her Canon AE-1 may remind her of her own growing up photos.
While her more recent photos are taken with a digital camera, a Sony a6000, they still are unedited and untouched, she says. “People like the photos I take because it’s what I see. I don’t doctor it, and I don’t change it.” Instead, she may diligently take several photos to get the shot she wants.
Photo by Karen Flowers Cagan. Paddle Board: Late summer at Hale.“I use my eye to find the right photos.” she says. Along with finding inspiration in the works of photographer Ansel Adams, a few local photographers, and painters Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, she is influenced by her surroundings. “I am inspired by flowers at a farm, lighthouses on the coast, and the everyday beauty of Westwood. It has been my home for the past 25 years,” she says.
While making Westwood her home, Ms. Cagan became a library assistant in the Children’s Room at Westwood Public Library 20 years ago. She still works at the library in the same department, at the job that she says she loves.
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Over the years, she and her husband have also raised two daughters - Nataniah who just turned 24, and Rita who is almost 20. Nataniah is a nurse as Mass General Hospital. Rita appears to be following in her mother’s footsteps, having organized photoshoots with her high school friends for fun. She is now a sophomore at UMass Amherst and her combined birthday and Christmas gifts this year was a camera.
Today, Ms. Cagan says one of her favorite photos remains one that Rita took of a single, pink flower, captured from her low perspective as a child, at age 7. “It’s one of my favorite photos because it’s from her eyes,” explains Ms. Cagan, who has also expressed the high importance of family to her.
When not working in the library, community members may find Ms. Cagan, a co-founder of Westwood Artists, busy planning or attending the art association’s seasonal marketplaces. “Being part of Westwood Artists has really helped me consider myself as an artist,” she says. “Photography is really an art form.”
Photo by Karen Flowers Cagan. Photoshoot with a Snowman Mailman.Ms. Cagan recently participated in the Westwood Holiday Walkabout on the first Saturday of this month. She states, “I thought it was great. We hadn’t been in that [Fisher School] building since 2019. It’s small and cozy. . . . So many people came, and I could see them walking from First Baptist to us and vice versa,” she said.
Her next art appearance in town will be at a Westwood Artists pop-up sale on December 16, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., in front of Westwood's Toast Office restaurant and Décor and More store. Along with a small group of other artists, she will share her creations with visitors who wish to see and purchase them.
Thanks to Karen Flowers Cagan for speaking with Westwood Minute.
Updated 12/9/2023 at 10:40 p.m. & 10:54 a.m. Corrections have been made to misspellings of names. They should read "Cagan" and "Rita." Westwood Minute apologizes for the errors.
