Kristen Perman, “In Medias Res”

“In Medias Res” Latin, for ‘into the middle of things’, describes a narrative that begins not at the beginning of the story, but somewhere in the middle, usually at some point in the action.

Inspired by a passage in a John Irving novel, into the middle of things is how it felt after a series of major life events occurred in rapid succession.

Fractured and unfocused, self portraits were a way to visually process what was happening, and the practice of making these images became therapeutic.

With a small hoarded stash of expired, instant film, and a Polaroid Spectra camera, I used the faded quality of dated film, and in-camera, double exposures to capture my fragile, inner landscape.

Gina Cholick, Night Wandering

Gina Cholick,Night Wandering


Gina Cholick’s work explores the liminal spaces where time, memory and recognition slow down and allow for contemplative communication. As a photographer, she seeks to communicate and understand not what is in front of her, but the unseen. Night Wandering is an emotional narrative about the artist’s struggle with insomnia. Self-portraits and remote landscapes tell the story of the night as a metaphor for the unsettled mind. 

 It's in the still of night when I am most awake, in those stretches of silence when the world is at rest and I feel untethered from the pull of slumber. The weight of my exhausted limbs chafe against my unyielding mind, pulling me down into a spiral of night visions that flash across the screen of time passing and memory, leaving me paralyzed​ with eyes wide open. Even with the closeness of the body next to me, the warm and deep slow breaths of contented slumber, I am alone in my night crawling.  Wrapped within this state of insomnia, I experience the battlefields of remote and isolated landscapes, negative spaces that feel at once perilous and beautiful. I mark my nighttime expeditions with lightly tread footsteps that lead me toward the glow of darkness. I move forward without respite, untamed and unknowing in my direction.

 

www.ginacholick.com

Debe Arlook, Emptiness Defined

emptiness defined

black trespasses white
white trespasses black

lines stain space with perjure
truth and distortion lies

known and unknown muddle
predicted chaos rise

markers of design reveal
moments of hurried time

current denial let slips
emptiness defined

Maureen Bond and Cindy Crane, After Curfew

After Curfew

We find the titillating act of wandering through out of the ordinary places in the dead of night strangely comforting. These feelings incite us to create surreal, sometimes haunting images that examine the final days of forgotten treasures while straddling a line between what’s real and what isn’t. Unconventional influences such as David Lynch and Gregory Crewdson inspire our desire to evoke the sensation of a connection with memories of the past - yours, mine and ours. Through our interpretations and arrangements we ultimately have direct control, creating scenes that can never be duplicated. In our project After Curfew, we paint with light, bringing to life and illuminating the everlasting beauty in man made creations that have been discarded as monstrosities of insignificant junk.
 

Cindy Crane

BIO

Cindy Crane is a fine art photographer born and raised in Los Angeles, California and still calls it home.  Photography is her escape from a full time job as a web developer and systems analyst.  Her photography projects span a number of subjects including night, light painting, conceptual, street and alternative processes. Her photos are created using a number of digital and toy film cameras and even her cell phone. She is currently a student and volunteer course assistant at the  Los Angeles Center of Photography.Bond

 Cindy Crane

 Cindy Crane

  Cindy Crane

 Maureen Bond

Bio

Maureen Bond is a fine art photographer born and raised in Los Angeles, California and still calls it home.Having spent the last 15 years in Higher Education, Maureen has recently moved on to become the Executive Director of a non-profit Community Center. By day her work keeps her challenged, and by night her creativity emerges from shooting the streets of Los Angeles and searching for abandoned decaying confines. Her photos feature coincidental, accidental and unexpected connections.  Her favorite place to photograph the nocturnal world is the desert under the full moon.
 

 Maureen Bond

Maureen Bond

Maureen Bond

Jane Szabo, Reconstructing Self

Jane Szabo is deeply interested in the human condition and her work explores how we live, how we relate to each other, and how we feel about our identity. Her current project merges fabrications with conceptual photography in a series of self-portraits, playfully exploring issues of identity in an ambitious juxtaposition of fashion, sculpture, installation and photography. Though currently creating photographic work, her background as a painter and installation artist, as well as a career that included fabricating custom props and scenery for television and theme parks, strongly influence her current body of work.



Photographs of dresses made from familiar objects such as dental x-rays and crossword puzzles, suggest a persona, and become a stand in for my self. The personas represented in these forms illustrate who I am, who I am not, and who I wish to be. Drawing from my own background, I create still lifes, pairing objects with the dresses, building a story, and invite the viewer to contemplate the connections, and develop their own mythology.

The balance between the self and the world outside can be a precarious one. We struggle to find a way to individualize ourselves, yet often merely blend in among the masses. Presented as a typology, the photographs of dresses with their accompanying objects encourage the viewer to look closely to analyze the differences and similarities, and perhaps to fit themselves in to one or more of these dresses or “selves.” The empty forms suggest alienation or loneliness, while the materials and objects simultaneously strive for individuality and uniqueness. Though these works are self-portraits, with personal stories and memories embedded through the use of specific materials, the lack of human form makes the dresses universal. With references to paper doll dresses and childhood playtime, one can imagine these personas could be put on and removed at will as the mood, personality and stories change.

 Aunt Rosemary’s Photo Album

 Cross Words

Dental Films

JANE SZABO PHOTOGRAPHY
www.janeszabophotography.com


https://www.facebook.com/JaneSzaboPhoto