March 2023 Featured Artist
Images Speak Louder than Words
An Interview with Award-Winning Photographer
Laura Dodson
Laura Poses with "Still in Flight"
Photo Courtesy: Laura Dodson |
Laura Dodson is an award-winning photographer, writer and educator based in New York City and Athens, Greece.
She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute. Her works have been the subjects of seven international, one-person exhibitions, and her art has appeared in numerous group shows. Laura currently teaches digital photography at Queens College, City University of New York and writes portfolio reviews for LensCulture magazine. Her photographs are included in several private and public collections. Her most recent exhibition was "Fictional Narratives" at Alex Ferrone Gallery. "When I realized immediacy and urgency for me came from photography, I traded my brushes for film and never looked back." ~ Laura Dodson |
Myrna Beth Haskell, executive editor, asked Laura about her captivating photographs, her inspirations, and women in the field whom she admires.
When did your passion for photography begin?
I bought my first camera before going to art school. What I initially loved about it was its ability to zero in on that one spec of information that was my vision, while deliberately zoning out the rest of the noise around me. My original field of study, however, was painting, something I believe shows in the synthetic approach I now take to my process. Rather than snapping a moment from reality like I used to, I begin with a blank slate and build on it layer upon layer, color upon color. I remember in graduate school, while my classmates were concerned with the immediacy of the paint itself, I was composing my canvases from intricate narratives inspired by photographs. When I realized immediacy and urgency for me came from photography, I traded my brushes for film and never looked back.
When did your passion for photography begin?
I bought my first camera before going to art school. What I initially loved about it was its ability to zero in on that one spec of information that was my vision, while deliberately zoning out the rest of the noise around me. My original field of study, however, was painting, something I believe shows in the synthetic approach I now take to my process. Rather than snapping a moment from reality like I used to, I begin with a blank slate and build on it layer upon layer, color upon color. I remember in graduate school, while my classmates were concerned with the immediacy of the paint itself, I was composing my canvases from intricate narratives inspired by photographs. When I realized immediacy and urgency for me came from photography, I traded my brushes for film and never looked back.
System of Roots
Archival Pigment Print © Laura Dodson |
The Wedding Guest
Archival Pigment Print © Laura Dodson |
Your use of transparency and layering presents a feeling of viewing something underwater – the image ever-changing. Do you hope viewers come back to your work and see something different each time?
Yes. I want my viewers to submerge themselves in all the layers and symbolism. Water is a conduit for me and is present in most of my works. I like its physical mutability and its visual surprises, but also its metaphorical connotations. I expect my subjects to appear as if they are floating, sinking or resurfacing, depending on how one reads them. The layering is all about what we see, versus what lies beneath.
Yes. I want my viewers to submerge themselves in all the layers and symbolism. Water is a conduit for me and is present in most of my works. I like its physical mutability and its visual surprises, but also its metaphorical connotations. I expect my subjects to appear as if they are floating, sinking or resurfacing, depending on how one reads them. The layering is all about what we see, versus what lies beneath.
Glass Door
Archival Pigment Print © Laura Dodson |
Whose Ghost
Archival Pigment Print © Laura Dodson |
In many of your works, I get a strong sense of the subjects in the images literally peering back at me as if through a looking glass. Are you attempting to comment on the idea of past, present and future existing simultaneously; perhaps, that all are one in the same?
I love that idea of representing different periods and states all at once. Photography has the power to project something that once happened into the present. And because it crops a moment from time, we also do not know what will develop next, outside the frame, or in the following moment. There is a sense of portent and expectation.
I love that idea of representing different periods and states all at once. Photography has the power to project something that once happened into the present. And because it crops a moment from time, we also do not know what will develop next, outside the frame, or in the following moment. There is a sense of portent and expectation.
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I’m mesmerized with “Still in Flight” from your Flowers in France series. So many things to talk about in this one: juxtapositions of nature and man-made; realism and impressionism; color and gray scale; animal and human. And the title grabs as well.
‘Still in Flight’ is one of my favorite pieces. The woman in the vintage photograph who inspired it had a supernatural intensity. She looked like she had just landed out of nowhere. I combined her with a family painting of a black bird, an allusion to Edgar Allan Poe‘s Raven, with its haunting presence of the departed Lenore. The hybrid nature of the photograph is appealing to me. As you say: black-and-white versus color, photography versus painting, human versus animal. I like the idea of our ego, superego and id all existing together in one body. The title is an oxymoron, just like the term still life. My goal is to engage the viewer by always infusing still objects with movement or agitation, be it literal or psychological. Do you decide on a title after a work is complete, or do you have something in mind ahead of time? Titles are always part of the process in this type of narrative work because it is never about documenting a specific event, date, time or place. The titles come to me not so much immediately, but nevertheless instinctively following a labyrinth of associations. They allude rather than describe. |
Still in Flight
Archival Pigment Print © Laura Dodson |
Lips Stained Blue
Archival Pigment Print © Laura Dodson |
Here’s an example: I make an image of a vanilla ice cream cone. During the process it brings to mind that distant jingle of the ice cream truck, which always provoked in me a sense of creepiness mixed with craving. My title, Lips Stained Blue, is drawn from the lyrics of one of those tunes. As I said, kind of creepy.
Our dreams are often snippets of real experiences scrambled with the absurd and nonsensical world. Do your own dreams inspire your work at all? My images are dreamlike because of their clashing elements. And they do rise and fall, like sleep, between the real and the unreal. I’m tempted to say, however, that they are inspired by conscious decisions which might nevertheless spring from unconscious feelings, desires and reactions. For my Nostalgia series, for example, I sort through vintage photographs, looking at silent strangers displaced and long gone, until one of them speaks to me. There is a moment of recognition where the mystery of their narrative meshes with my own, and I instantly know how I’m going to retell their story. Describe the inspiration behind “Permanent Condition” (Nostalgia Series, 2017) and what you hope viewers will draw from it. (See image below.) The process of montage is like the titles I just mentioned – associative by nature. Some primal instinct brings disparate objects together; in this case, it's a stern, unhappy looking woman from the distant past with a cockroach preserved in glass. The reference, of course is ‘Kafkaesque,’ the persistent drudgery of the beast within, which eventually materializes. |
Permanent Condition
Archival Pigment Print
© Laura Dodson
Archival Pigment Print
© Laura Dodson
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One of my earlier series, Still Creatures, created at a time of sorrow for me, explored our darker natures, our suffering, our deceptions and obsessions, represented as vegetable or animal states. It’s a theme that seems to follow me. Even though I am much more lured to depicting beauty in my older age, there is always a tinge of longing.
What do you draw inspiration from the most? I am a daydreamer, a romantic, an escapist and an impressionist. It’s about relying on all senses to provoke an emotion. Things drift in: memories come back to me, sounds through the window evoke reactions, smells conjure the distant past, glimpses of motion make me long for the future. Poems and lyrics inspire me, as do fairytales...and definitely paintings, particularly in their details. In museums, I am always with a camera, recording passages of color and texture, and snippets of subject matter like hands or feet. I even photograph the intricate frames and incorporate them in my pieces. We’re celebrating Women’s History Month. Any women mentors along the way whom you’d like to give a shout-out to? Perhaps there is someone you particularly admire in the field. It did not occur to me till now, but from the ever-growing list of photographers I admire the most, ninety percent are women. |
The Juggler
Archival Pigment Print © Laura Dodson |
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In the 19th century, Julia Margaret Cameron stands alone. In the twentieth, it's Diane Arbus. During my school years, intense influences were Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, and Francesca Woodman.
Today, whenever I can afford to collect, I invest in females. It’s not by design but because of my instinctive penchant for their art. Alessandra Sanguinetti, Cig Harvey, Julie Blackmon and Julia Fullerton Batten are some photographers I have collected. Where do you find sanctuary? I find my mojo while teaching, at least when everything clicks. I find tranquility at the beach. I am half Greek and constantly yearning for the sea. But I recharge by traveling, especially to the capitals of the world where I can get lost in culture. And finally, I find sanctuary in those moments where an artwork I am making comes together and makes sense. |
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