Self Portraits
I build installations in the landscape or in abandoned interiors and then make private performances for my camera in these spaces. The performances explore my relationship to the world around me and are part ritual, part dance and part daydream. I have many fantasies that I cannot achieve in life as I have known it–being able to fly is the main one–and am frustrated by the limitations of an earthbound body. This is a dilemma we share–being both flesh and spirit–living in a body with a mind that dreams. My images serve as visual metaphors for struggles we face every day: tensions and balances, keeping hope alive against the obstacles, and living in a vulnerable way without being crushed.
Diana Camera Work
This series is about vagueness and images half remembered from the
subconscious. Each of these pieces is part of a series which, when seen
together, creates a sensation of falling or floating. These images also remind
me of a half-sleeping dream state, when we remember only parts of a dream
and the parts become symbols. We wake with a head full of half forgotten
images that we try to piece into a linear story line—with this series I am
trying to build mood without a specific narrative.
I am using a plastic Diana camera, shot on the “b” setting, to get this
hazy off-balance look. Because the camera has a plastic lens, everything is
fuzzy and vignetted, and looks like it is coming up from under water or out
of a dream.
Resume
ANNE ARDEN McDONALD was born in London England and grew up in Atlanta Georgia. From age 15 to 30 she made photographic self portraits; building installations in the landscape or abandoned interiors and making private performances for her camera in these spaces. She published a book of this work in 2004. More recently she has been making images with a plastic camera and doing sculpture and installation work. In the past 16 years, she has had 38 solo exhibitions in 10 countries (146 total shows in 14 countries) and has been published in over 100 periodicals, including in Aperture Magazine. Her work is in the collections of 6 major museums. She is represented by several galleries, including Photo Eye in Santa Fe, Gerald Peters in Dallas and Flatfile in Chicago. She is also a private dealer for 12 Czech and Slovak photographers who do performances for the camera and does lectures on the history of staged photography.
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