Untitled #11-21-17-412

Here are a couple of thoughts about 2017 and how to make sense of it. I am NOT going to expound about the state of the world and the hideous political situation we are in. Instead I am going to talk about a subject that I love – my photographs and how they have changed in the course of the year.

The year started off with a big bang which never let up! I shot more images in 2017 than ever before in my life. Of course, not dealing with film and processing makes a HUGE difference, but that is not all. As I look in the rearview mirror I see that not only am I over the hill,  but halfway down the other side!  Instead of slowing down however, I have sped up.

In 2017 I had 88 different shoots – which translates to 1.7 shoots a week for 52 weeks or .25 shoots a day for 365 days.

To show how my work has changed over the last year I have divided the year in two parts; pre and post my Vatican visit.

Pre-Vatican

Untitled #05-01-17-819
Untitled #05-01-17-819

Emphasizing the edges and scratched surface of  the mirror lends a shattered feel to my Pre-Vatican images such as in Untitled #05-01-17-819. A large triangular shard cuts into the frail, broken figure, making him appear thin and brittle. This shard, ending in a cracked point in his leg, implies fragility, uncertainty, pathos, and even hopelessness.

Post Vatican

The trip to Rome this fall had to include, of course, a chance to worship at the feet of one of the greatest geniuses of all time – Michelangelo. For more on my trip to the Vatican see Blog Post Want a lesson in how to ruin brilliance?

Michelangelo did not let me down. From despair to rapture, the expansive expression in his paintings at the Sistine Chapel,  stunningly depict the extremes of the human condition – and he did all of this within the framework of Christianity.  As a non–Christian it was easy for me to ignore the religious overtones and contemplate the momentous figures sculpted out of paint.

Back in my studio I studied the dark, grim figures on the wall.  I loved them (still do) but I wanted a shift – to what, I did not know. The shape of the mirrors has been my major concern for the last couple of years, which means emphasizing sharp edges, breaks, points and cracks. But with a minor change in focus I made a MAJOR shift in seeing!    I moved my focus from the surface and edge of the mirror to the figures. The mirrors are still defining the forms, but without the  cracks, scratches and marks on the surface I began to explore  lines and forms.   Ask anyone who has ever studied with me – I LOVE LINES AND FORMS!

Untitled #11-21-17-412
Untitled #11-21-17-412

 

Untitled #11-10-17-185
Untitled #11-10-17-185
Untitled #12-22-17-423

Without faces and heads the work becomes less psychological and more gestural reminding me of images I have made in the hot tub through the years.

 

Untitled #4442
Untitled #4442 1992

 

Untitled #11159
Untitled #11159 2006

 

When I started this journey in 1983 I had no idea that in 2018 I would still be on it. As I look back I don’t see  a straight path, but rather a spiral where I periodically come back to similar visual concerns.  The first time I explored the form of the body (eliminating the head and face) was in 1992, I picked up on it again 14 years later in 2006.  12 years later I am once again concerned with the forms and lines of the body but this time I am doing it, not in a hot tub, but in a studio with mirrors.

 

Back in June, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Ben Long at The Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute workshops.  In addition to his work with many magazines such as MacWeek, MacUser, Macworld, and CreativePro.com, Ben is also a regular contributor to lynda.com, an award winning online instructional video library.

lynda.com produces thousands of video tutorials and training on various topics.  While most of their video’s feature courses on software, they have been working towards focusing on where creativity and technology intersect.  Some of their latest videos are aimed at educating not just the practical aspects of a given discipline, but the artistic understanding and creative vision that can be applied.

Ben Long’s Foundations of Photography series has been a huge success with lynda.com, addressing technical knowledge of photography with an understanding of the aesthetics of it as well.  Following our work together during the summer at Quartz mountain, Ben and I were reunited for fall courses at The Oklahoma Arts Institute.  The folks at lynda.com took the opportunity to incorporate the workshop into a new course Ben was working on for the site,  Foundations of Photography: Composition.  We were followed by a camera crew who filmed our lectures on creativity, intuition and seeing, as well as critiques and discussions with the students.

This was such a new and fantastic project to work on, and it was wonderful to work with Ben and everyone from lynda.com.  The Foundations of Photography: Composition video series was published on lynda.com on 12-23-11 and has already been a huge success, highlighting as one of the most viewed courses.  I highly encourage anyone interested to check out the series, you won’t be disappointed!

Just added a handful of new images to the portfolio section of the website!

I’ve continued working with the mirrors in color, most recently playing with gels to have more control over the color and how it defines the form.  The color has brought a more dynamic element to the images, and the colors I’ve begun incorporating have been slightly more bold than they were previously.

Check out the 2010-present section at ConnieImboden.com to see some of the latest work!


Another excellent review! This is for the show at The University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor, ME. The show looks fantastic by the way and will be up through September 19, 2009. For more information on the show, click here.

I’m thrilled to receive this wonderful review from Carl Little in Art New England Magazine, featured in the August/September issue:

Elegant Darkness: Photographs by Connie Imboden

“Black-and-white, when its full potential is realized, renders all other colors unnecessary,” the painter Wolf Kahn one wrote about Emily Nelligan’s charcoal drawings, The same can be said of the photographs of Connie Imboden. While the Baltimore-based artist has explored color in her recent years, the twenty pieces in Elegant Darkness, dating from 1987 to 2005, offer a rich palette, with tones ranging from silvery white to pitch black.

Imboden’s stature as a world-class photographer is based on her compelling images of bodies transformed by water. Over the years she has explored the intersection of physical form and liquid medium. In her photographs, torsos, limbs, and visages stretch and twist into new configurations that are often gorgeous and frequently disturbing.

In a number of pieces, we witness Ovid-like metamorphoses. In Untitled 6243, for example, a male figure appears to be turning into (or emerging from) driftwood. At times, the makeover seems cruel: the face in Untitled 9053 undergoes a torturous rearrangement by way of a metal contraption right out of an S&M accessory catalogue. In each case, it is the H20 that creates the illusion.

The nineteen silver gelatin prints and one archival inkjet print in the exhibition bring to mind diverse artists and aesthetics. Earlier pieces, such as Sainthood and Visceral Thoughts (both 1987), might be stills from a Jean Cocteau film, where disembodied heads surreally float in a watery landscape. Just as we read labia in the folds of Georgia O’Keeffe’s flowers, so the viewer may connect the fleshy snail shape in Untitled 8067 to something sexual. The diving figure in Untitled 1721 recalls the paintings of Lorraine Shemesh, who shares Imboden’s fascination with the distortions that occur when a figure moves through water.

The exhibition was organized to mark the recent publication of Imboden’s Reflections: 25 Years of Photography (Insight Editons, 2009). A long-time professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Maine Media Workshop, the artist has earned this retrospective treatment through a commitment to investigating the exquisite mysteries of the human form.


-Carl Little

March 14 – April 25, 2009

Opening Reception & Book Signing: March 14, 2009
Reception begins at 6pm

Book signing begins at 5pm, and will be featuring the new book,
“Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden”

Here’s the gallery info:

Heineman Myers Contemporary Art
4728 Hampden Lane
Bethesda, MD 20814
www.heinemanmyers.com
301-951-7900

Click on the logo above to visit heinemanmyers.com : )

With the new site up and running (www.ConnieImboden.com), I would like to use this blog site as a more informal way to share my process, experiences, recent developments, works in progress, and the latest news, both inside and outside the life of my work.

So, to kick off the new blog, I’d like to begin by introducing my very talented puppy, Lucy. She is the most recent addition to the family, and judging by this video, we think she’ll fit right in. Enjoy!