Desert Portal

Landscape image of the desert, with circle reflection, meant to look like a portal.

Artist Statement: Silver or Everywhere and All at Once
Ansel Adams said–somewhat cheekily–the hardest part of photography is knowing where to stand. This is essentially an acknowledgement of the importance of the camera’s coordinates in space or the vantage point of the maker. I use a mirror within the landscape as a way to combine two vantage points - in front and behind me - in one frame. Representation of photographic seeing tends to be from one vantage point or coordinate in space – you extend a ray from your eye to the scene. I’ve often felt this is a representational limitation since what we may experience as seeing is a three-dimensional experience. By creating images that combine multiple scenes–albeit from the same vantage point–my aim is to create a two-dimensional image that encompasses a more whole experience of seeing. The series locked into place when I realized I could line up horizon lines from these multiple spaces or line up objects--clouds and rocky peaks, for instance--to unify different spaces within the singular frame. Though the idea of landscape may carry with it certain metaphors, I use the landscape as a sort of blank canvas or background layer (to use the language of Photoshop) devoid of social cues or commercial symbols. I use a circular mirror as a reference to the shape of the eyeball and to the fact that all images -- whether formed in the brain or projected on the capture plane -- are created optically as true circles.