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Beth Herzhaft
Portfolio Artist Statement Online Information ![]() ![]() THE INDECISIVE MOMENT I am currently working on a series of contemporary photographic landscapes I call "area photography". The subject matter I gravitate toward is unspectacular, and the images are a mischievous reaction to "epic" photography. There is a tension between meaning and meaninglessness that is expressed in this work. This series is an exploration of the ephemeral, the peripheral. I am looking for the monumental in the yard: neglect's found aesthetic. Through the juxtaposition of spatial elements, use of color and light, and choice of subject, a sort of "discovered" narrative emerges, highlighting incompleteness as a condition of everyday life. In area photography there is no "decisive moment": what is captured is a comma rather than an exclamation point. Others may see fit to "de-ordinarize" their imagery, engineering it to produce a fantastical effect. I reject this convention.
There is both a sense of idealism and anxiety in this work, and it is my hope that both the beautiful and the absurd can coexist in this work. |