multi-image

At first blush one might not see a connection between these two images. For me there’s a strong photographic connection, essentially there are two renderings of the same subject in a single frame in both photographs.

My image, circa 1976, was made in-camera exclusively. My old Nikomat camera had a button at the bottom of the camera that you could depress and then advance the shutter, without advancing the film. The subsequent double exposures intrigued me and probably led to my later exploration in multi-image narratives. It’s also a lot more fun than Photoshop because you never know what you are going to get!

My first glimpse of this image was pulling it out of the soup, aka photo chemicals for processing, and spooled it off the real and saw this crazy shot of 2 feet superimposed on each other, but again it is really just one foot photographed twice on the same piece of film. I didn’t quite know what it was going to look like printed but I just found it fascinating and have always like the image.

It has a bit of a cubist and Dali-esque feel to it.

One of my images from a body of work entitled, “The Pear Series”. These images are the result of a long period of introspection and self-examination culminating in the series and this image.

The impetus for this project was a yearning to create beautiful images once again. After spending years in the cerebral machinations of the commercial arena, my response was to engage a vulnerability of spirit and heart I had not touched upon in my photography for sometime.

The Pears, gave me that opportunity. The symbolism of the pear is deeply connected to its form, and its similarities in the female figure. I visualized this shape as symbolic metaphor through which I am able to give voice to emotions and feelings I believe we all share.

Furthermore, this softer feminine element is often in stark contrast to the malleable and sometimes violating elements and concepts included in the series. This is an attempt to communicate the male ethos struggling to dominate; these manipulations are just that, the conquering nature of the man contrasted with the beauty of the woman. I was interested in revealing these dualities in myself, creation and power.

The Pears and its simile, pairs, gave me further conceptual fuel for examining relationships… relationships to society, to one another and to myself. Commonality and self-examination are some of the repeating themes threading throughout the series.

I choose color Polaroid film as my primary medium for these works. The degenerative look of the low resolution Polaroid suited my vision for the pears; soft, textural and inviting, though again, in contrast to the sometimes conflicted and emotional direction of the series.

Of course the missing component in this self-examination is the viewer and their interpretations, which are likely to be as varied as the uniqueness of each pear itself.

Robert’s surreal image “Two Towers” lead me to investigate the fabric treatment of the towers in his photograph. My image blends upholstery fabric with an image of a face and brings a humanistic and emotional twist to the Game’s conversation. I particularly liked the implication of a tear from the combination of the two images. While this image with its amorphic qualities moves the thread of the Game away from the linear nature of architecture, I’ll be curious to see where the progression takes us from here.