"Bodies of Water"

"Venus"
Type R Chromogenic Print

Taking a break from my Paper Ballet project, I thought I would share with you a few images I created awhile back. They are constructed from my imagination and incapsulate a few ideas I have about the portrayal of woman in photographs, creating a narrative between sexuality and containment, effervescence and contentment. Venus riding on the crest of a wave, the excitement and unconfined enthusiasm of youth and the contained beauty and power of wisdom, are characteristics which are embodied within each and everyone of us.

"Bodies of Water" were physically created by sandwiching slide film of portraits I had shot, with close up details at the waters edge and then printing them on Type R paper. The beauty and warmth of film can be felt in these images. A discerning eye can quickly tell the difference. The tenor is at a different pitch. It's like tasting fine dark chocolate after only experiencing Hershey's all your life.

"Youth"
Type R Chromogenic Print

As I began experimenting with the positioning of the frothy water beneath the black and white portraits, so many symbolic references came (literally) flooding to mind. The birth of Venus - Goddess of love, beauty and passion, is usually portrayed riding a wave on a shell. The sexuality of woman and water portrayed in Mermaids and Sirens also came to mind. Small, tiny bubbles glistening in the summer sun reflected pink, green and blue hues that burst forth like Champaign, their ebullition reminded me of the unbridled actions of youth. Then, with a portrait of my Grandmother against a black backdrop, as I positioned the setting sun on her brow, the water embraced in her heart, I felt like I was able to visually render what true Wisdom looked like.

I'm happy that I literally grew up in the midst of the emerging digital age in the Bay Area. Throughout college, I was a "lab rat". I started out at a black and white lab called Bay Custom Lab in the Richmond District. It was a family of sorts, with crazy Aunts and Uncles and many, many siblings. I also worked at the first color photo lab on the West Coast, Faulkner Color Lab and the first digital lab in the United States, Robyn Color Lab. All of these labs in San Francisco have since closed. But by working around the tools of the trade both in film and digital, I was able to bridge the gap and apply each element when I knew the image would benifit from it. I now work primarily on the computer and shoot with a Nikon D800. Yummy pixels! But I do pick up my medium format Yashica camera on occasion, loaded with black and white film.

"Wisdom"
Type R Chromogenic Print

Photography as Art was embraced early on in San Francisco. Group f/64 consisted of seven photographers from San Francisco: Ansel Adams, Imogene Cunningham, Edward Weston, William Van Dyke, Henry Swift, Sonya Noskowiak and John Paul Edwards. Their goal in the 1930's was to elevate photography to an art with the eye to modern esthetics and to exhibit the best contemporary photography of the West. In the mid-90's I belonged to SFSFP, San Francisco Society of Female Photographers, a group of around 15 women who would go out at night and shoot street photography. It was empowering to be a part of this creative group and empowering to be able to photograph on the harsh and often dangerous streets of San Francisco at night. Long exposures were our forte and although I'm not comparing us to Group f/64, we were certainly inspired by their passion.

I have always loved the work of Dorothea Lang, who photographed migrants in central California for the WPA projects. Along with her then husband Maynard Dixon (one of my all time favorite Western landscape painters), they lived in San Francisco and the Bay Area for many, many years. At 6 months old, I had the great honor (although I wasn't aware of it of course) to meet one of my all time favorite photographers Imogen Cunningham through a family friend and amazing artists Ruth Asawa. I grew up surrounded by women who created Art. It was the norm in the Bay Area. Creating Art through photography has been a joy as well as intellectual stimulation that keeps me wanting explore its boundaries and to share my passion with the world.

Vive la photograph!

Julie Pavlowski Green
June 22, 2013