Amy Giese

070909.2143.10011

Artist Statement:

Enter the room. Captured light, both its absence and excess is arrested hanging on the wall. There is a compression of time and space encapsulated in these impressions that references constant ongoing emergence of the past which can never fully materialize. Shadows are stilled, seized and lost; scrolls of paper in varying lengths hang from the walls, shifting shades of gray move across the surface, patterns repeat, shapes emerge then recede, sometimes revealing their referent, other times remaining elusive. Embedded in each scroll is an abstracted compression of an experience, yet they simultaneously hold the direct reference to the actual space and time light written, recorded by an alchemical process.

For the past two years, I have been exploring ideas of representation, truth and abstraction in relation to photography by creating photograms of shadows cast at night. I am trying, with some futility, to redefine the medium for myself—to breathe new meaning into a process that many now believe is dying, or at least changing beyond recognition. By working with photograms, there is an implied proof or truth to the image. Yet, because I have removed all reference to reality the final image is more an abstract composition rather than a traditional photographic depiction of a place or thing. We desire these recordings to be moments of truth, yet we understand that reproduction is never the same as the original.

Low Tech will be showing at the Center for Fine Art Photography through the month of October.