AnnaHarper.com

My work borders on the real and surreal, giving the images psychological weight and ambiguity. Though the images you see may seem like they are snapshots, they are created from a number of images and blended to appear real.

I first fell in love with photography when my father bought a Polaroid camera. I was nine years old. It seemed magical to me, the instant capture of a past moment forever recorded, a time machine. Photography is the communication of change. When we look at an image there is knowledge that the moment recorded has already past. I love that I will never be the same each time I take a photograph, and neither will the subject I am capturing. Photography transforms reality into the viewer’s perception of reality. It is a window into their mind and is selective, like our memories. We have no choice, but to use our frame of reference. It is all we have. I am interested in recording a deeper psychological reality, a feeling, an idea, a story, a change, a mystery, a dream, my imagination.

As a young child I was afraid of a dream or subconscious thought I had. In the dream I would sleep with the covers pulled up around my neck, laying awake, trying not to sleep for fear of what I imagined might happen while I slept. As I grew a bit older, I understood that my imagination or subconscious was not something that I should be afraid of. I grew interested in how people think and began reading medical studies and journals. I found that our imagination kicks in where our understanding leaves off, filling in the blanks to help us make sense of our surroundings. It is this ambiguity that makes my photographs interesting, mysterious, romantic, memorable and at times even haunting.

My working process is about making images not taking pictures. My creative process is both additive and subtractive. I photograph the same subject repeatedly, creating different images based on the changes in light and time. I use a layering method so I can blend the different images I capture with my camera. I take away some parts of images and add others. I use these images to paint a new image of light, time and imagination.

I think in pictures. I communicate through art the way I think. At times, I have such a rush of information and ideas that they are juxtaposed. What we experience does not always make sense, like in a dream or the subconscious mind. I get ideas from my dreams, daydreams and my personal life. I keep a journal of my feelings, thoughts and dreams and often use these in my work.