Metamorphosis
There is always magic encircling us: in nature, in one another, and in ourselves. I discovered that magic in the darkroom while creating my first silver gelatin print. As I watched the image gradually emerge—an image made not by ink but by salt, silver, light, and inspiration—I experienced an eclipse of the perceptual filters that too often prevent us from experiencing that mysterious force which connects us and is within us.
I followed that magic into the color darkroom. This time, however, because generation of a color image requires the complete absence of light, I could not witness the image emerge. I was learning a new art of metamorphosis, that like many transformations, arises out of a place of total blackness. Similarly, in our own lives, we must endure times of darkness and unseeing before we experience the miraculous unfolding of our whole potential.
My love of the abstract paintings of Emma Lindstrom and the works of impressionists such as Claude Monet guided me along my journey into the world of color. Using a slow shutter speed allowed me to suffuse the images with energy and imprint a stream of moments onto a single print. In these light paintings, the subjects themselves are the painters, painting the photographic canvas—my 35mm film negative—with their movement.
I am inspired by the flowing cycles of nature and the perpetual change and movement intrinsic to it. In this series I seek to transcend the static tendency of photography and infuse breath into a medium that is often bound by a fraction of a moment.