Message from Jane Alynn
I began photographing in the mid-eighties. Camera work gave me the opening to lose myself in the natural world and to explore my interest in seeing—observation, perception, and discovery of what isn’t immediately apparent. Nature and the landscape remain potent sources of inspiration, but I am most interested in images that are more than the idea or the subject.
I want my work to transcend the documentary nature of the medium. Fascinated by the obscure, the element of enigma, I strive for images that nudge the boundaries of abstraction, evoke a sense of mystery, and linger with the force of metaphor, stimulating the viewer to look closely, then to look again.
Among my influences are the pointillist-inspired images of early 20th Century pictorial photographers, the subtle tonal and tactile aspects of these images with their impressionistic soft-focus, and the Zen arts aesthetic that abandons true-to-life perspective in favor of seeing beyond reality, transforming our visual experience.
To this end, I use a camera without conventional optics and a high-grain film that contribute to a detachment from reality and thus a reorientation of perception. The blurring and softening of edges and the “halo” or “glow” that appears in the highlights, infusing the forms with a glint of the numinous, fascinate me. I love the elusive and haunting quality of these images, and the dark beauty they convey visually.
Because much of the process is unpredictable, I am often amazed at the shapes and forms that have appeared in the print, the subtle suggestions generated by configurations of branches and stones, of highlights and shadows, and of the spaces in between.
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