Wake Forest Magazine invited five professional photographers who are alumni to return for 48 hours. They zoomed in on the Wake Forest they want you to see.
Mary Craven Dawkins (’03)
Returning to campus last fall, 20 years after my graduation, I stumbled upon these windflowers growing both inside and outside a greenhouse at Reynolda Gardens. The image perfectly portrays my four years of growth and life at Wake Forest. Here I felt safe within the confines of the structure that housed me. Meanwhile, with every passing day and year, I sought the freedom and boundless opportunity of the outside world. Wake Forest challenged me; it gave me my best friends; and most critically, it instilled in me the confidence to embrace my individuality.
When I look back at my time at Wake Forest, I’m astonished at the significant world events we experienced together from the safety of our bubble in Winston-Salem. We hosted a presidential debate in Wait Chapel. We awoke on 9/11 to watch in shock as the Twin Towers fell. I experienced these things and many others in an enriching and sheltering community that shaped my perception of the world and my place in it.
My course studies also gave me a window to the wide world beyond Wake Forest. My love of mountain climbing and my dreams for future travel to Southeast Asia combined to lead me to an anthropology degree. I found the studies of cultures, people and their traditions to be fascinating. I still think about these things and incorporate an anthropologist’s curiosity into my photography. Through my camera lens, I delight in telling the stories of people and the things that they love.
The windflower is so named because the petals appear to be blown open by the wind. In a breeze, they perform an artful dance. Wake Forest nurtured my creativity and curiosity, which eventually led me to photography. It taught me to dream big. With this foundation, I am secure to blow open in the wind and be the artist I am today.
Mary Craven (Hines) Dawkins (’03) has been an interiors, brand, weddings and lifestyle photographer for a decade in Nashville, Tennessee. A North Carolina native, Dawkins has a passion for authentic connections that lead to photos of a preserved moment of time. As an official photographer for The Scout Guide, she has enjoyed getting to know local businesses. Her work has appeared in Garden & Gun, Southern Living, Country Living, Flower and Rue magazines. When she doesn’t have a camera in her hand, she can be found at home with her husband and three daughters or on the next travel adventure.
