Jan Cook Photography


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a Dreamlike State of Mind

 


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Fugue: A Dreamlike State of Mind

Fugue: A Dreamlike State of Mind, reflects the intersection of my interest in cultural documentary photography with folklore and storytelling. I am interested in how fables and fairy tales represent archetypal ideas in our collective unconscious.

 

I explore these themes through the framework of the fugue state; a dreamlike condition of altered consciousness that may last for hours or days, during which a person loses his or her memory and often wanders away. To create a surreal landscape for my characters and suggest an altered reality, I choose to work with chromoskedasic painting. Working the images with chemistry during the development, I fabricate individual environments within which to create enigmatic portraits. Each silver gelatin print is unique.

 

Conceptually, my manipulated photographs represent a visual translation of magical realism in fiction, blurring the edges of belief. Technically, I am interested in pushing the visual boundary between where the photographic image begins and ends.

 

 

 

Bright Ideas

BRIGHT IDEAS is a series of photograms inspired by the diverse range of light bulbs utilized in the motion picture industry. This project is a record of a technology that is rapidly changing, transitioning from incandescent to more energy efficient fluorescent and LED lighting. The Edison Bulb (invented in 1878) is rapidly becoming obsolete.

 

The final impressions are created in a traditional wet dark room utilizing only light, pre-coated photographic paper and chemistry; there is no photographic lens utilized, hence these images are referred to as “cameraless” photographs or “photograms.” After the exposure is made the prints are manipulated with chemistry during the development in a process called chromoskedasic painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 









© Jan Cook 2019