The TREMOR Projects: Reflections on the Nature of Parkinson's

Kristin V. Rehder, Basin Reflections in Sunlight (diptych), October 29, 2022

After my Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2019, I began using my camera to explore the many connections between my body’s quaking and the changeability of the natural world. Three series of photographs emerged.

For the original TREMOR, I shot around a small catchment area of water, foxtail grasses, border trees, and distant farm fields behind our residence in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. TREMOR II focused on Lopez Island, Washington, our summer home. TREMOR III is based in Crescent Beach, Florida, a seacoast we have visited often.

By allowing my animated hand to direct the camera while shooting with a very slow shutter, I simply give my shaking its due. Together, my tremor, the camera, and the movements of nature help me create a different kind of art, converting what some perceive as a disability into the opposite—into possibility and positive energy, into a mounting sense of wonder.

TREMOR was exhibited in 2023 at the Phillips Museum at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. In 2024, it traveled to St. Catherine’s School, Richmond, Va. and in 2025, it was part of On Parkinson’s: Three Artists’ Journeys—Kristin Rehder, C. David Thomas, and Torrance York at St. Lawrence University, Canton, N.Y. TREMOR II was shown in the summer of 2024 at the Lopez Island Library and the Lopez Center for Community and the Arts.

Scroll down for the TREMOR II and TREMOR III photographs