Lightscapes

In creating the photographs of this work, Lightscapes, I allow my intuitive response to the subjects, their interactions, and to the elements of light, object, and landscape to create the final composition of the picture. The images in Lightscapes were not manipulated digitally or in a darkroom. They were taken with the least amount of technical precision and the minimal amount of structure that characterizes shooting with a plastic film camera like Holga. There is little reliance on camera settings so the concept of control is gone and given to happenstance. I was inspired by the approach of street photographers in their freedom and un-restrictiveness of taking photos, yet unlike street photography, the images in Lightscapes are not documentary photos. Instead of being determined by a coherent and chronological narration, they remain indefinite with no reliance on a single story to guide or ground them. With the Holga camera, I apply the notion of photographic intention and combine it with a reliance on instinct when to point, frame, wait, press the shutter, and wind the film forward without the help of a viewfinder. They are vignettes of moments, layers, and lapses similar to moving film. The images in Lightscapes offer various ways to construct multiple narratives by cropping, yet never rearranging, or altering the roll of film‘s sequence or the physical configuration of the negative strip that remains uncut. These images present a recognition that ideas are not necessarily the equilibrium to the concrete object that finalizes the photographic process. Our inner life and the outer material world both contain the same impermanence and constant fluidity. By conveying to the viewer, a reality that is coexisting in-between what we see and what we think Lightscapes is a series of photographic imaginings that represent the imperfections of cognizance while understanding that longings and reveries are as authentic as any objective memory, or tangible reality.