[slidepress gallery=’angelabaconkidwell-travelingdream’]
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Angela Bacon-Kidwell
Traveling Dream
My photography comes from a life long obsession of exploring how my subconscious generates my dreams. As I move through my day, I am keenly aware of my encounters with people, places and things. I mentally record the details of these situations, and the physical or emotional responses that they evoke. These fleeting associations replay themselves in my dreams. The random moments combine to form sleep stories that are rich narratives, ripe with symbolism. With that as my model, I construct sets, use props and invite myself and models to perform in a natural, intuitive way. In essence, I attempt to create a waking dream.
For me, it is about being in the moment of a planned vision. That is were I’m most connected to my creativity.
In the series, “Traveling Dream”, I’m not illustrating a specific story, but creating unresolved moments from which the viewer must imagine a beginning and end. In this way, my images can become personal, each viewer lost in their own dream story within mine.
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Oh my. How I wish Angela had chosen to submit her “Traveling Dream” essay from which this image came. I already found this selected photo intriguing but when I saw it within the context of the whole, I was mesmerized. This artist’s vision transcends the medium in which she works. Hers is a voice of mystery and “innerness.” Carl Jung would adore her work! As do I…
Patricia
Angela rocks. Simply as that. :) Her work is incredible and very inspirational. She definitely deserves wider recognition… I am very happy to see her here.
I’ve just looked at Angela’s other galleries on her website and came away thinking, “Sally Mann meets Joseph Campbell.” But Angela does everthing in her own way. A true original.
I sure hope Burn’s photojournalists will be open to seeing the world through eyes that look INTO and BEYOND rather than AT what is before them.
Patricia
PATRICIA….ANGLELA…ALL
yes, yes, i agree…i wrote Angela a letter asking her to PLEASE submit the whole essay…if she responds, and if she so wishes, i will surely publish all of it….
some submit essays , where they should have submitted a single…others, as Angela, submit a single when they should have (IMO) submitted the whole series…Angela may have her own reasons for not doing so. I would respect the photographer’s wishes above all else….she may simply want to drive us all to her website which is fair enough…
as i have written before, it must be incumbent on the photographer to submit their best “self”…if i am familiar with the photographer in advance i can surely lean on them to do one or the other…it is time consuming enough to go through all of the submissions every day and i just do not have time to go through every website and piece together what the photographer SHOULD have done…i also cannot just pull from a photographer’s website either morally or technically….and tracking down photographers by e-mail is, well, another full time job!!!
i will write a post suggesting that photographers in doubt should submit both an essay and maybe one or two photographs from that essay as singles…this would save so so much time and allow the photographer to be presented in the best way possible…
Angela, if you read this before you read my e-mail, please please consider letting us publish your whole “Traveling Dream” series…simply remarkable…many thanks…
cheers, david
ANGELA,
It was great to look at your website indeed. You have created your own very intriguing world and there are many great photographs in this series… The one chosen by David is a very special one!
Eric
Rarely do I stupidly rejoice because of the perfect combination of image and word. This is one of those moments. Thanks!
ERIC…
Angela submitted the one above…i did not choose…had i been the “chooser” , i would have chosen the entire essay Traveling Dream…..see my comment above…
i do look forward to editing with you this afternoon….
cheers, david
Some time ago I stepped by chance in Angela’s work (I saw the image of the boy behind the curtain and the mountain goat(?) -from Travelling Dream- as the cover of an online magazine) and really enjoyed it, also because it reminds me of one of my favourite authors: Arthur Tress.
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Trust me, David, I was not implying that YOU should have somehow managed to get Angela to submit her essay instead of a selected essay. Having been the beneficiary of so much of your precious time and attention, I am well aware of how stretched you are in ALL directions, especially since Burn came onto the scene. But I am glad that you’ve now contacted Angela and encouraged her to allow you to publish Traveling Dream here on Burn. I hope she says yes. As you say, it is truly remarkable.
Patricia
(message to kathleen F.: remember to start with the website ;-), others can start where they want)
Vistuoso work served by a rich open-ended imagination. I am much more involved by the less “oniric” work on your website, but both have me looking with my hat off!
PS: David, how about telling us how some of the artists came to propose their work? I mean: Do I understand that some of the members/editors are scouting the photographic world to bring people to submit, or is everyone submitting because they simply know of BURN, without being contacted?
HERVE…
so far, the work published on BURN just comes to me through the submissions platform..from the readership here….just as you submitted..nobody is out there scouting, although as soon as the EPF is finished then i will set up formally an editorial advisory collaborative group to do just that…actually the EPF alone has brought in enough new work to publish fine essays on BURN for the next year….yes Herve, you have been a part of creating a monster….you are one of the ORIGINALS…now, go take another picture that is an equal to or better than your delightful bride photograph…i am waiting…
cheers, david
Angela’s work is amazing. Truly artistic and super-creative…painting disconnected images that make up a dreamscape. I love this and wish she had submitted the whole essay because it is simply beautiful. Very original.
Angela, I love the photograph and can really relate to your text: my own dreams are hyper-real although not-always comfortable!
I have deliberately not looked at your website yet although; if DAH asks you, specifically, to submit an essay; DO IT (laughing).
Best wishes, can’t wait to view your website,
Mike.
Thank you for publishing “escaping history” I really appreciate the comments and support and look forward to establishing a dialoque with many of you.
I would love to send the whole series-David.
I’m off to find the photo of the “delightful bride” by Herve :)
All the best,
Angela
O.k. got you Angela: 5 saw your work in a recent issue of the British Journal of Photography. I love traveling dream; reminds me of Trent Park – except – how much is “straight” and how much is “Photoshop”. No problem either way: I seem to be on a similar journey but I’m looking for the “other” in the “real”.
Besides, I know little about Photoshop (I only learn the computer technique that I require; no more. If I need more I ask my Son).
Come to think of it; how much of Trent Park’s ” Minutes to Midnight” is “straight”?
Best to all,
Mike.
ALL….
Angela and i are now communicating by e-mail and we should have the whole series up soonest….we just have to wait for Anton to wake up…he is in Japan….i can publish the singles easily, but am ill equipped to technically do the essays..i can edit and sequence of course, but entering them in the “system” is now beyond my capability…when i asked Anton once if he could just teach me, he just smiled…hmmmmmm…..
cheers, david
DAH, my Son, Mark, is your Anton. I made a good living in I.T. but I only gave it enough attention to get by. My head is (was) always full of photography! Mark recently sent me instructions by e-mail to help a friend saying “Open I.E. and ….” I replied “What’s I.E.”? He replied “W.T.F.! .. Internet Explorer”!
I replied “What’s that? I use a Mac”.
Cheeky sod!
Best,
Mike.
I’m just a passive follower of this site, and a few others, and was so delighted to see Angela’s work here. I came across her work about a year ago, and fell immediately in love with her vision, style, and message. Kudos to you, David, for showcasing an artist of her genre.
What a haunting photograph, dreamy yet uncomfortable. I’m looking forward to checking out the website and seeing the whole essay.
Thanks, David, for making the special effort to encourage Angela to post her entire Traveling Dream essay here on Burn. And thank you, dear Angela, for saying yes. Also a big thank you to our web wizard Anton who will soon awaken in Japan to the news that we have yet another job for him to do!
Burn is really SIZZLING today!!!
Patricia
Woa, just checked out Angela’s essay and it looks like those images were somehow directly extracted from her dreams.
how much is “straight” and how much is “Photoshop”.
Well, to answer Mike R question:
I’m by no means a purist when it comes to photography. I have a long background in painting and I think I still apporach my images in a layer manner. Much of the work in this series is “straight” shots however I do always need to have my hand or mouse to complete the final image. It is my way to feel completely connected with the process.
Thank you for all the great support and I’m more than willing to answer specific questions.
angela… all…
your single is now an essay… presto :-)
anton
WOW!
Watched the essay without reading the blurb. Absolutely wonderful work. All questions, all open. Superbly executed. Really nice to come across work like this out of the blue.
Angela. You do very nice work……..I will maybe read the words later….maybe :)
John
How wondrous to see this amazing essay full screen! I saw many things I’d missed when seeing it on Angela’s web site. I will be returning again and again to enter and travel through Angela’s dream world. Such a gift…
Patricia
Herve
;)))))..gotcha!
ANTON/ DAVID.
Thanks for sharing the more complete essay from Angela. Very much worth seeing the complete body of work. I admire your agility… You were greatly missed this morning when I connected with David. Sent you a message.
Cheers,
Eric
Great! Well worth waiting for the essay! I thoroughly enjoyed this work. Would love to experience it with music too… would really take you away! Great stuff!
Wow. This is the coolest, most interesting stuff I’ve seen in a long time. Wow. I’m at a loss to respond.
Usually I’m not a fan of this type of photo but I found it dream like and enjoyed the images very much. Try watching the slide show while listening to “Stars” by Bian Eno (Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks).
hello Angela,
I like so much your series, it is absolutely magnificent, and so poetic… I would like to have some of your photos at home…
all the best, audrey
we are carried upon the dry-stretch of our traveled lives by the race and meander of our fulsome dreams. Pliant, agile and quick to snap, they are the moments upon which our waking life seems at best to be a palimpsest. I will always, whether seen or constructed by the photographer, stand beside the work that balances the oneiric with the breath-lived, that carves from our seeing around, the seeing of within. For me too, this essay is best understood within the kingdom of parenthood: joy and fear and sadness and that strange alchemy of life and loss that defines the wonder of raising, watching and setting free, loss, a child. Rather than a child’s world, this is the difficulty hard-won world of a parent and all that titled imagery and magic, all the shadow and honed light that of the arrangement of coming to grips with the flight and plight of seeing one’s child step and teeter into the damp fecund world around….a mothers dream.
for me, too, the issue of PhotoShop is an irrelevancy. Almost every one of these photographs is a construction, a composite of a number of images, moments, digital pictures, an arrangement that somehow speaks with honesty and versimilitude. Besides, our eyes, the way we see the world is through construction: what is before us and what is behind us (our memories) and all is defined by that. That it works is a testament to her skill as both an observer and a conjurer. and in the pics, all kinds of photographic (late giacomelli, the parkinsons, fukasake, etc) and literary and pop allusions that tie us with this personal vision….congratulations….
and something I wrote for my wife, after she’d had a crazy dream of our son…..later, part of a poem about the act of photography….
14. Late in the crux of unveiling morning my wife bends forward and speaks ecumenically then pauses as if a twitched by a gnat of light birched into a corner. Hesitation followed by inhalation and then comes this:
I dreamed that I took a child into my arms and pulled his cowlick mouth against my breast, bowed my arms around his clavicle, whispered to him as if milkweed settled upon the spine-stem of a root. He was protected and i rose aloft. I rose, child to my breast, air beneath my collar and cage and arms, my arms bent and flapping like wings until i was aloft and adrift like a bird, he still clinging to my nipple. I, after a moment of surprise and serendipity, alighted upon the thatched roof. I sat stilled upon the gutter and bone of the spout of the roof like an owl, the root of my calm clutching the pull of his mouth against by draining body and I curled out my song while he suckled upon me. I was a bird sitting upon the perch of the world, child at my side draining me of all that I am in order to nourish all that I dreamt to be. I was a bird. This child was a god whose thirst needed all the tributaries of my once-clung to body. He was a still a child, a human child and as he clipped the skin of my tit, he bruised the fruit of my hope, swallowed all that I dreamt i would be in order to be that which I meant him to be by leaping into flight. Then, after an interminable moment, we leap, leap together, gathering gravity and wind, rotter and arc. In that moment of discarding, I recalled how he perched against the awning of my body, lapping up, as if a hum, as if a song, the nutrients of my life. We alight not as if birds but as bone and feather and dream. We flew, then, not from skeleton and earth-pulling but from alchemy. Squawk. By the dream’s end, he had fallen from beneath my breast and my wings squandered the air in descent. There it was. There, the falling. The ascent from the plummet. How could I have not known before. How then, in the falling, I could have forgotten that once we were, gene-to-gene, a-perch?
All that. All that. Past your window, do you hear that, the leap and the anguish and the falling.
15. To live as if the only voice in your body was the spin and hum of the world.
running
bob black
Now that is very very cool.
Bravo!
Angela.
a machine, your camera, recorded your incredible creative mind. drifting freedom. but you stop and build so it can fly and be. it’s just fascinating and that’s what i love about it. it’s interesting to see an
xray of your mind. your machinery. love looking at it.
anne
Angela,
I enjoyed every single frame and as it moved along, I eagerly anticipated the next image. I was never disappointed. You are truly a talented and remarkable artist. This is one essay that I will look at over and over again. I’m happy that you did not include music. It left me to create my own while viewing. Janet
Mr. Bob Black I’m going to need to digest your comment and ponder your dream. Thank you for such a indept repsonse. I will get back to you soon.
Sean Wood I will give that title a try, thanks.
Thank you everyone for looking at my series and taking the time to leave a comment. I truly appreciate the jesture.
Angela,
This essay is just beautiful. Sensitive, ethereal, moving. Dreamland indeed.
Thanks.
JEFF JAMES…
thank you for your comment….i took a quick look at your site and do hope that in the future you will kindly submit some work for us….many of your family photographs are quite provocative…..since you live so close to Charlottesville, will we be seeing you at Look3??
cheers, david
Creativity is alive and well in the 21st century. Thank you Angela for submitting. You have proven that imagination is such a powerful tool.
Keep dreaming.
Paul
amazing work… so surreal… big news today…. americans can now travel into cuba…
Woman to woman, your work makes me want to sit down and ask you a stream of questions over a cup of tea..I am drawn by the way you work, being daytime aware and pulling from the sleep stories to weave together something that is part found and part generated. My sensibilities make me celebrate most your less ‘sweet’ images..visually I respond to the slight darkness of 8 and 13, for example.. It is the overall though that intrigues me..who you are, why you work this way, where you live, if you are mother to the child in the images and if so what that is like for your working, all that..I have these crazy crazy all night marathons of dreams, making my night time life richer than my waking, and always I am conscious of this gift..but you have used the gift to make something that can be shared. I always laugh at the idea that when recounting dreams, most people say “I had the strangest dream last night” but then recount them in the most mundane way, because there is a gap for most people between the experience and the bringing it back to the waking state..and you have found your way to thread the continuum..Edison used his hypnagogic state for working on his inventions; he made a chair with metal cups at the ends, and he would hold ball bearings..when he started to doze his hand would relax, he would drop the ball and he would wake, conscious of where his relaxed mind had led him..he did this over and over to allow him to reach into this rich area of creation, so that he could make something manifest for all of us..in your way I see you doing the same..
Angela,
Stunning work! Conceived in the minds eye and visually created with the camera. Beautiful conceptual work. Keep making your incredible photographs.
Carlan
Absolutely amazing! thank you for sharing these with us!
Erica,
That would be lovely! tea, coffee, wine :)
I am the mother of the child in most of the images. After the birth of my son in 2005 I was compelled to start creating again and because I choose to stay home with him and expeirence the joy/hardships :) of that decision the work had to envole him. Over the last three years this series has developed organically and without (much) hardship. On most days we are in the process of exploring- each image has a dual meaning and is intended to be open ended.
Being a woman artist for me is like learning to rest in motion, like lying down in a boat. At times life can be filled with diversions that distract my focus from the process of creating. When distractions or interruptions do present themselves I try to stay on course by acknowledging my faith in the essence of creation, play.
Ultimately my work is a journey and surrender with known and unexplained emotions. I use contradictory symbols that are personal and multilayered, an image can simultaneously represent what I am questioning and what I have answered.
I appreciate your thoughts, Erica!
I also look forward to exploring everyones website and commenting on what moves me.
Thank you for the support.
Angela
Thank you for that..where do you live (generally)? Looks beautiful..will try to keep the meditation going here of the stillness in motion :)
goodness… quite amazing! I would have preferred a slightly tighter edit, but then the essay might have been TOO mind-blowing! Hats off.
This is spectacular!
Dimitri,
Thank you! Would you mind sharing you tighter edit for me. I have my thought but would love to hear others! Thanks
Angela, you’re very welcome! Give me some time for my suggestion as to what would have been my edit, I don’t want to hastily say something just to say it.
Last night in my waking/sleeping I was looking out an open window through my grandmother’s lace curtains fluttering in the warm breeze. Laid out in front of me was a serpentine dirt road following the shoreline of a vast river. Both were glowing gold in the light of the sun as it ducked in and out of the storm clouds overhead. I felt deeply comforted and at peace.
Now I wonder where THAT came from??? Thank you, dear Angela, for making your dream my own.
Patricia
Angela :))
my pleasure…as a parent/artist myself (and who has done work with/about his son, some of which can be found here at Burn) married to another artist, the iconography, the beauty, the doubts, the fear, the motion in the stillness is all there in our lives as well…which i guess it was why it resonates so clearly with me…including the duality and the ambiguity at play…also having been a painter too (as was/is my wife, whose photography will also be shown here at Burn very soon), these kinds of spells work their way through and upon us…how things encorcell…..
anne carson, in the autobiography of red, wrote something magical and profound about parents and children…the pain of watching they gallop past and beyond us, there, over there on the far-distant mountaintop, as they receed from us, as we draw back from them….
parenthood is magical not because it is easy or fun or ‘beautiful’….but because it is filled with all the joy and all the frustration and sorrow of being alive….
that, i guess, is why i ‘knew’ you were a mother, if not to this child, then to another…
it’s in the images….and the scent…
welcome aboard…
cheers,
bob
Angela, this will be quick….
:))
dont worry about writing, no worries…
my pleasure…as a parent/artist myself (and who has done work with/about his son, some of which can be found here at Burn) married to another artist, the iconography, the beauty, the doubts, the fear, the motion in the stillness is all there in our lives as well…which i guess it was why it resonates so clearly with me…including the duality and the ambiguity at play…also having been a painter too (as was/is my wife, whose photography will also be shown here at Burn very soon), these kinds of spells work their way through and upon us…how things encorcell…..
anne carson, in the autobiography of red, wrote something magical and profound about parents and children…the pain of watching they gallop past and beyond us, there, over there on the far-distant mountaintop, as they receed from us, as we draw back from them….
parenthood is magical not because it is easy or fun or ‘beautiful’….but because it is filled with all the joy and all the frustration and sorrow of being alive….
that, i guess, is why i ‘knew’ you were a mother, if not to this child, then to another…
it’s in the images….and the scent…
welcome aboard…
cheers,
bob
my new favourite burn essay Angela. i really think this plays into the strengths of still photography / still imagery. i am certainly in the same mind as Erica; i think you would make for some terrific company at a dinner party. i do also envy you in that you’ve found such a strong, unique photographic voice.
more interesting to me than just a celebration of your talent, from an implementation perspective i feel like i’ve just met the female manifestation of Roger Ballen; i would not be at all surprised to find out you’ve a bookshelf with shadow chamber on it. for me this makes Ballen’s work seem less primordial and much more masculine.
both you and Ballen have thrown fish hooks into our subconscious and dragged out some universal abstractions and both of you have made them so haunting in the concrete, but the maternal angle makes me like both works so much more thinking about them side by side. Please Do More.
anwyay, i’ve fav’d your site and i’ll keep checking back to find out if you’ve published these images in a book that i can buy.
best wishes
hmmm… angela i am envious of your ‘easy’ ability to create. i have looked at your essay many times (and your website) and shall write regarding the essay at hand.
i only have 4 shots i like and know that i dont have technical know how. i like the title shot, the little person reflected in the water, the little guy in bed, and him hugging the pillow. the rest are…
umm.. uncomfortable. like they give me a headache almost. evoking not much of feel good emotions like
the rest of the comments here.
are these dreams you speak about nightmares sometimes? and your efforts made to turn them into good dreams?
i am so sorry that i dont have a good response to this. but i guess, evoking emotions is a good goal to achieve and this would make effective photos.
will try my best-est to mull this over more…thanks for sharing.
incredibly strong and original (though a couple pictures seem familiar). liike dimitri, i think a tighter edit would push it over the top.
Gracie, don’t apologize for your response to Angela’s essay. Whenever an artist/writer/photographer/filmmaker/dancer/musician dredges up our “collective unconscious”–as I believe Angela has done here–it makes us uneasy. That’s why we’ve pushed such images/ideas/memories down deep into our unconscious. If we were comfortable with them, they’d be out in the open for all to see. Be gentle on yourself and let Angela’s dreams sit with you in silence. They have important things to say and for each of us, their messages will be different. Dream images like these cannot be interpreted by the masses: they speak to each viewer’s personal well of memories, dreams and life experiences.
So, in truth, your response says that Angela has succeeded in her goal. She has woven dreams–or nightmares–that touch a deep and lonely spot within your (our) soul. Thank you, dear Gracie, for being so honest in your response. You took the discussion to a new level.
Patricia
Thank you, Gracie for you honest comment. My intention is not to evoke only happy thoughts. Dreams is a word used as a blanket that holds both “pretty” dreams and the “ugly” ones. I attempt to speak to both of them and not censor myself in the process. I hope this makes sense.
Patrica nails me to a TEE! Thanks
Patricia, this genre seems, to me, to be very suited to yourself: a free spirit with immense creative energy; constrained by various circumstances (I’ve just described the human condition, haven’t I, Patricia).
I am drawn here myself. I am drawn to writing (I can make you laugh; I can make you cry).
But… I am a photographer, for better, for worse, for poorer, for poorer (laughing). My bag is creative reality…. Man.
Hope to meet you and yours someday.
Look 3?
Mike.
Gracie, yes, why apologize? Your critique is honest and maybe strict, but respectful and well thought through.
Having said that, I am puzzled that you thought the positive comments about Angela’s essay implied a “feel-good” emotion that the images evoked… As far as I’m concerned at least, on the contrary. I also felt uneasy and uncomfortable, like you did. But that is exactly why I thought these pictures were so successful as dream images. Dreams are often like that. You might be interested in the short stories of Bruno Schulz, if you’re not familiar with them. They evoke a quality similar to Angela’s images. Or, have you seen the amazing films of Jan Svankmajer? Very bizarre, very disturbing, completely dream-like.
Angela, I have not forgotten! So: I think I would get rid of 5, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26 (and maybe 11, 12 and 15). Don’t get me wrong, they are good photos, but in my opinion they subtract from the overall sinister and ominous power of the dreamlike imagery of the rest of the essay.
Brillant,
Thanks for taking the time- I agree with you on all but one- #15
It is exactly the edit I had to take with me next week to Photolucida. Thanks.
What about 15 bothers you? Feel free!
nice as a series, I’ll revisit this one soon
I am always searching for worlds within worlds and waking dreams within the stark reality, the glimpses of things half seen from the corner of my eye, those things children understand and we forget, fireflies in a bottle. I doubt that makes sense but it would seem you have tapped into them quite well, and with such wonderful collaborations. So many questions and so much mystery. I know I will always remember when I first saw this on Burn and realize it was quite … influential for me personally. A greater compliment I’m not sure I could give. Brilliant Angela. Truly. I hardly know what to say. Sleep well.
hi angela, all,
thank you. i thought i needed to check with my shrink for the moment
and double up on em white pills :))))
well, for your question to dimitri on #15, i feel quite comfortable with it.
that picture is quite me and this picture makes me feel good. so maybe even though
i like #15 a lot, it “does subtract to the sinister, ominous character of your imagery”
i guess if you want to go for ‘disturbing’ or effective, then #15 has to suffer, has to go??
ps. your single published earlier, that little young un had almost a lionine wolverine
character to his ‘snout’ making that act of looking into your history quite like brothers grimm!
Oh Angela, I can live with the loss–only in this essay–of most of Dimitri’s choices BUT I would fight to the death for 11 and 15. I’d weep a few tears for 15 too but guess I could let it go with a little pouting. So you’re taking your work to Photolucida. Can you share with us in what venue Traveling Dream will be seen?
Mike R, you are a very perceptive fellow. My husband is convinced that the less I can “run around” literally, the more active my inner life becomes. I’d have to agree. Hey, being disabled has its benefits and I’d say a compensatory creative boost is one of them.
Yes, I’ll be at Look3, in fact I’m treating myself to David’s and Jim’s workshop. Will I see you there?
Patricia
CORRECTION:
I meant to say “I’d weep a few tears for 25 too but guess I could let it go with a little pouting.”
P
Angela, all,
I said MAYBE I would also lose 11 and 15. :) Not necessarily! I am glad we agree on the rest, and that my input could be of some help, Angela.
Patricia,
I also like #25- a simple carwash with birds drawn on the inside car. We love carwashs around here they have provided times of rest for me and pure joy for him. BTW: I’m in upper north Texas, Wichita Falls. May I email you?
Photolucida is a portofolio review that is held every other year in Portland. I made the top fifty with great surprise so I’m going there next Wednesday to show my work from the Travelling Dream series. On one the days I’ll be showing the work at the Portland Museum of Art and that walk wil be available to the public. So, if you are in Portland come by and see me ;)The remainder 4 days are 20 min reviews with gallery owners, curators and publishers. Five a day so it should be intense and I know it will be a great expeirence no matter what.
Gracie, I’m not trying to be sinister- just me. So, maybe I’m a little of both.
White pills are good, no?
#15 is more about the feeling of dissociating from oneself. In the past this was a common occurrence for me. It happens during the moments you fall asleep- in-between states and I feel as if I’m flying and moving. Very disturbing but I welcome the feeling most nights. During this walk with the girl she was so wild and consumed with her moving reflection that I just felt what I feel during those “special” nights. So, for me it really needs to be in the series.
angela,
oh no no no no… i dont mean you are trying to be sinister, keep 15 if you have to or want to,
like i said i like that picture a lot.
like what they editors say, cohesiveness of message or so they say, sinister, disturbing et al…
and yes yes yes… white pills are good!
(ps. loved the carwash… much too much…)
your boy is not only a great sport but gorgeous too!
Angela:
can i graciously tell you ‘forget’ photolucida…;))…….i fear that, well, ‘they’ will offer u very little in terms of insight….better: get the work shown, absolutely to galleries (why do you need Lucida for this??)….remind me to tell u, when you return, a story about PLucida….if your prints are as strong as the web presentation, well then, there is nothing that the reviewers there will offer you in the way of sustenance ….unless (and i trust this will happen for you), you can (fingers crossed) form a rich connection with some one (editor, gallerist, fellow artist) that bonds with the work….well, either way, the work is strong and potent, at least, plucida will be eye opening….
sending u all the best for the show/work at the Museum and with others who get bit and swollen by your stories…
let me be proven a fool by the people that work the reviews this year at Lucida….(now, again, i’ve burned lots of bridges ;)) )….
fingers crossed in hope for u
cheers
bob
p.s. i know one of this years reviewers….drop me a line if u want some insight…cheers….b
Angela, please email me; I’d love to connect more deeply with you. I already sense we are kindred souls. My addy is playdorsey@comcast.net
And congratulations on being selected as one of the top 50 entrants for Photolucida. If they have eyes in their head and art in their souls, your work will WOW them in Portland. Wish I could be there to see their faces but I’m afraid Detroit is not exactly next door ;=)
Patricia
P.S. #25 brings back my childhood delight in fireflies. That’s what I saw in the rear window…
A powerful and beautiful essay stemming from a unique style. Well executed, really, a wonderful project. Thank you for sharing it.
Angela, the second frame displays the clearest access to your unconscious. Perfectly balanced between your wishes and the impossibility of their fulfillment. Magnificently staged, captured & presented. The child (in you) is helpless. Unable to cross over the river to fulfill primal desires and wishes, as it should be. Yes, powerless to cross a dry, barren river bed, but transfixed and sustained by the impulse to wind one’s way to obtain the wanted, but unobtainable satisfaction. The sheer joy & wonder stands in stark contrast to the realty. I love the way you created the “boat” with the sea inside. You have a very rich inner life.
This is a beautiful piece, something I will be going back over and over i think in the future. I am always drawn to people who marry dream-imagery to photography, either by thoughful elaborate construction (like Robert Parke-Harrison) or just a keen eye for the “dream/life”in the every day (like old Trent Parke). But this series has an ease about it, there is no other way to put it, it just seems so natural and yet so clearly unreal, yet real…And i find it to be a good dream, not a bad dream, not a disturbing dream, but a dream with messages to tell nonetheless.
Very nice work Angela. Really draws you in.
Beautiful
dreamy..
do you know wendy ewald? ‘literacy through photography’
photos and dreams??
she has travelled the world,
giving cameras to children
to photograph their dreams…
I’ve taught classes to kids based on her work,
my favorite comment from a 7 year old,
“but you can’t photograph your dreams,
they’re in your head…”
**
and then of course,
the killing and violence that they dream..
hard to keep ‘nice’ for Mom and Dad!!
**
there is something bigger here
that you touched on….
beautiful imagery..
**
sweet dreams…
xox
**
so interesting to me what you say Gracie (and Angela) about some of the images lending a feeling of unease..my only criticism of the work is that for me it swings toward the pretty and sweet to my eyes!
Erica, Thanks for the comment. I suppose some see the work as creepy and some as sweet- IT is up to the viewer to take away what they want. As I’ve said in a previous post the images are intended to be open-ended.
Thank you! You have a wonderful site and when I get some real quality time to answer and explore everyone’s work I will respond. The lack of personal dialogue on my part is just due to the time constraints. Time will free up after the first of May.
Bobblack, how do I get in touch with you?
Thanks again for your honest opinions. I appreciate it.
Best,
Angela
Angela..(thank you :)) and as i was falling asleep last night i was thinking about what dreams you might have on the same night..for the last 4 nights my dreams have been pretty disturbed and odd and dark, and I was musing that it would be so restful to have dreams like I imagine yours might be from looking at your images; because to me your photos are sweet..and it seems such a beautiful world. I appreciate that the images are open for interpretation, but I can only see them as lovely..
I’m so glad that Angela opted to submit the whole essay. It is brilliant.
Angela. Very nice body of work.
The muted tones and ‘dark’ feel in a few of the images remind me a little
of some of Andrew Wyeth’s conceptual works.
Two images, #2 and #27, sort of break the ‘rhythm’ for me-not so much in the content
or structure of the image but in their execution.
With these two image I feel that the ‘technique’ takes center stage and,in particular, the
light direction of the background and principal subject don’t match or are over-manipulated to the
point that I can’t get past the technique in order to ‘feel’ the image.
These are nit piks, of course, and don’t significantly detract from the overall work but are
details that stuck out to me. As the saying goes, “the devil is in the details”
Hi Angela ,
This is a dream project……..Its a new feeling, new realization…..it puts me 30 years back to my childhood. It is a story of all children…..
I don’t want to say about the composition, the tonality, the technicalities ……….I just want to say it a superb job and this make me thinking reading the direction of photography, the future of photography.
Angela deserves lot of appreciation for giving a unique and original piece of work…..
and OH! a lot of credits goes to DAVID for publishing “BURN” in front of the world……it is like the grammar with a pleasant diversion from so called traditional photography.
Sometimes I dream for working a personal project for BURN.
Hope I shall give some days.
Partha Pal
from Birbhum,India
Angela :))
i’ll write you at week’s end…im trying to finish up a writing assignment for Burn….soon to be seen….and please do not misunderstand me. I think PLucida MIGHT be a brilliant and wonderful opportunity for you, for sure. Your work is mature and interesting and deserves a wide viewership…and I believe that people who see your work will enjoy. some will like, others will not, some will really love it. What i fear about that ‘conference’ is that (as has happened to some people who I know personally and closely, and who are now great, successful photographers) you will have invested alot of time, money and effort and in return will not get valuable feedback. I hope this does not happen to you. I think the best opportunity will be with the Portland Museum…and hopefully galleries that showcase work such as yours will connect with you….but go with eyes open….many many people who offer portfolio reviews (especially in places like this), don’t have as much insight or working knowledge as you’d hope…but, as I said, i hope it is proven wrong….and I know 1 person who will be there, she’s an artist with whom I have had exhibitions and with whom we were artists shown by the same gallery…now, she’s also a curator….and well, to a certain degree, this artist embodies (in person, in conversation) much of what i loathe about the photo-circuit world…but, you could have a fabulous time…one VII photographer i know went there (before they were recruit by VII), they were told:
‘hmmm, this light, was it photoshopped’…and it was natural lighting…title doesnt mean depth at all…just know that, in the end, your work is strong because you are committed to your vision, regardless of what others say/think….
i hope the best for you…every committed person deserves both honesty and sincerity….the photogs i know personally experienced a lot of insincerity there…3 diff photogs, 3 diff years, 3 different careers….anyway, i’ll write u more in private…
be postitive but believe in your work…
cheers
bob
bblack,
I’m going in with eyes open and not excepting anything other that the expeirence. The reviewers are all substanital and I’m friendly with a couple of the photographers, one gallery and one publisher. So, at least I know someone will like my work:) For, me I think the whole expeirence with actually presenting the work and speaking about it will be the lesson.
I’m taking everyones advice about the “edit” of the images in to account because I’m only going to show 20 and I do realize the need for them to be tight.
Thank you, ALL
Angela
Angela :))
good to know. in this case it looks like you’ll be in good hands: that’s important. congrats on the critical mass finalist :))….and please do not misunderstand, my concern was not whether people will or will not like your work, no doubts there. my lament has to do with personal experience of friends who’ve gone. it’s not a condemnation either of Plucida or Critical Mass, but of how often unfortunate the experience can be….anyway, it doesnt matter. I’m certain it will be a wonderful experience. Presenting work to others is critical, especially in person where there is no escaping their eyes/faces….:))….
anyway, best of luck. It’s been a pleasure to discover your work. Stick to your convictions, above all.
all the best
Bob
As an adjuct:
David: how about a thread on the nature and nuture (??) of events such as big portfolio reviews…i know you do this at Perp and it’s a rewarding experience for those who get lucky and get a good/thoughtful reviewer (like you)….i’ve got lots to say on that issue :))))….
remind me later to tell u what Chris A told me once about what a reviewer had said to him when he was younger…and my friend Don Weber’s experience in Portland….
hugs
running
b
Hi Angela
Your work is stunning! I’m a huge fan of Carter, Caffery, Mann, etc and your work fits right in to the spirit of these great artists; loaded with mystery, atmosphere, narrative, and humanity. I will definitely be talking to my students about your work.
I too will be at Photolucida (an image of mine in fact is featured on the announcement for the Portfolio Walk you mention) so I look forward to meeting you and seeing your work in person.
RE: Bob’s comments about these events, I have been to several, including Photolucida in the past, Fotofest, Photo Alliance, etc and I know many veterans of these events who have been attending them since their inception, so I think I can confidently say from experience that these events are quite worthwhile. The measure of their success however is really dependent on your expectations and how you nurture the relationships forged there. I have had both sales and exhibitions materialize from these events, but that is not the norm. Instead, I suggest looking at this week as an opportunity to gain introduction to people and to expand your network. The most valuable relationships you may come away with may very well be your peers. If you’d like, feel free to email me and I’ll share some stories (www.petertonningsen.com) Otherwise I’ll see you in Portland with your great work! Congratulations.
peter
Peter :)))
i couldn’t agree more…having been to events like this…and also given people portfolio reviews, i just say, keep open and be careful of reviewers….network is important…all i would say is this:
At perp, Magnum gives FREE!!! portfolio reviews…Plucida $750……CONTACT much much cheeper…and well, ok, i’ve spoken enough already….it’s a major problem for me…in the world of publishing, a writer is not charged to have a manuscript read…and i deal with both worlds….it’s a major and depressing part of the photo world network….i know 1 vu photographer, 1 vii network photographer and 1 magnum photographer who had horrendous experiences at these kinds of places…and look we’re there at now ;)))….all I am saying is stick to your convictions, believe in your work and connect with people….it’s a game (one that depresses me immeasurably)…i say that as a photographer whose exhibited and sold work…but, i’ve said enough…
to each their own, for sure….
cheers
b
Oh, I hear you b. These events have become quite a profitable (and arguably exploitative) enterprise in themselves (as have “juried” exhibitions and awards I might add.) One needs look no further than the little empire MV Swanson has created for herself, the ever growing number of these events, or the rising popularity of paid submission/exhibition sites like Critical Mass, Photo Eye’s Photographer’s Showcase, etc as evidence of this. On the other hand, competition is continually increasing and it is harder and harder to get direct access to markets and decision makers (especially in fine art) and these events can help with that. I think photographers are actually lucky in this regard as other mediums don’t have such opportunities. I have been on both sides of the table at these reviews too and understand that there is some insincerity and egos to deal with, but you just need to have thick skin. As a participant, I don’t attend these for feedback or critique, but instead I go to form connections, gain perspective on where others’ work stands relative to mine, and of course, party… $750 may seem like a lot, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to what I have spent on my art and mounting shows and it only takes one connection to make it return.
Angela;
What a wonderful essay, I love it.
Thank you!
~ Angela…
I saw your portfolio on the Critical Mass website several months ago and this was one of those that really stood out for me….I appreciate so many kids of photography and the intentions behind the images, but I am just mesmerized by the surreal and I absolutely love what you have created.
I hope your reviews go well at Photolucida….
You must sign up for a review with Mary Virginia Swanson……she is an amazing woman and THE person who seems to know everything about the photosphere…esp fine art.
Maybe you already know that, but i wanted to mention it…..
Also, I will be volunteering to set up for the Photolucida portfolio walk next Thursday and I will go thru each session with my teacher Cherie Hiser and 4 other students.
We will meet with a few photographers after each session to look at & talk about their work.
I was wondering if after your session you would sit down with us and personally show us your portfolio?
Afterwards…if you would like….let me take you out to play in our fun and funky city of Portland.
Looking forward to meeting you & seeing your prints at the walk……
hillary
hillary@hughes.net…..503-949-8803
(~;…btw….from the bUrn. roster….Brian Shumway~La Chureca was a finalist in Critical mass too….and another one of peter tonningsens avian images is on the promo piece for the Photolucida portfolio walk….;~)
Angela;
I was too busy to make a longer comment earlier, deadlines etc. Sorry.
This piece blows me away. I only wish I was blessed with the sort of creativity that you are obviously so blessed with. I’m truly envious of your talent; envious in a positive way!! :-0
I’m far too “straight” I think, but truly appreciate other work. To me; this is one of the most inspirational, artistic and memorable essays submitted so far.
Good luck and thank you
Ross
Thank you everyone for your time and thoughtful response. I hope to have a long relationship with BURN and all the outstanding photographers here on this site.
All the best!
Angela
Beautiful, haunted and nostalgic all at once…
Awesome……..
Kuynghee Lee style..
Dream like… and what a dream!!!
I have to say, catching up on some essays here at Burn, that this is just a stunning visual experience. Each still is breath taking, different, unique, and yet each one works with the others to create this fantastic sense of the mood. Visually this is really one of the best essays up on Burn. I really don’t have anything bad to say about it. Even the heavy use of pp editing doesn’t feel heavy handed or overdone. Really nicely done.
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