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Paradox, New York
By Diane Mitchell
I am a photographer. I was there. Each photograph recorded a precise moment in my history. This series of images began in a quiet Adirondack valley. For several summers I vacationed in a small cabin perched over a babbling brook. Most days were spent reading, researching, experimenting photographically, swimming, and walking--an idyllic way to reenergize and prepare for my travels and New York City projects. Each visit culminated in a special hike to one of the "Forty Peaks." The entire day was devoted to imprinting a cherished memory. We tried to absorb enough fresh air and sublime vistas to last until next time. The Paradox series begins with one of these views. The series tried to capture the ambiance of a place and time. I asked myself, if my memories are magical, how can I reconjure that experience for others?
In reality, we experience many facets of our environment simultaneously. This prompted me to explore how we form memories of a place as multilayered experience. Slides of different elements -ferns, streams, barbed wire- were combined into images. Although the resulting fusion ignores any conventional continuity of time and space, it incorporates both macro and micro, naturalistic and expressionistic details that embody the serendipity of this retreat.
When I observe the most successful images in this series, I am not transported into a sentimental nostalgia for my past. Rather I reexperience the photographic act. I smell the air and feel the dampness. I know what time of day it is, which rock I am sitting on, and even what I am wearing as I take the photo. Perhaps it was not an image but a talisman that I desired.
