| In my series, Inside, I address the issues of childhood memories in meticulously composed conceptual photographic tableaux. An essential tension animates almost every picture with an immediacy, an articulateness of gesture, a strong sense of color and composition, and an unusual perspective. The narrative is filled in single frames, intriguingly poised between abstraction and figuration. My staged photographs elaborate on seemingly insignificant moments I have experienced, investing otherwise benign, forgettable gestures and routines with imaginative potency by restaging and embellishing them with extreme close-ups and oblique perspectives. They become an open-ended description of something that we think we know, but most often overlook or bluntly ignore—such as the hair torn from a brush, only to be discarded. |  |
Elizabeth Pedinotti
In my series, Inside, I address the issues of childhood memories in meticulously composed conceptual photographic tableaux. An essential tension animates almost every picture with an immediacy, an articulateness of gesture, a strong sense of color and composition, and an unusual perspective. The narrative is filled in single frames, intriguingly poised between abstraction and figuration. My staged photographs elaborate on seemingly insignificant moments I have experienced, investing otherwise benign, forgettable gestures and routines with imaginative potency by restaging and embellishing them with extreme close-ups and oblique perspectives. They become an open-ended description of something that we think we know, but most often overlook or bluntly ignore—such as the hair torn from a brush, only to be discarded. The photos have an ability to imbue images with a layered narrative, allowing the particular instant of a still photograph to open into a more complex arena. My photos rely on our ability to recognize the combination of character and prop as a pivotal moment in the story.
With my extreme visual curiosity, my photography turns the innocent trappings of domesticity—piles of laundry, ice cream cones, spoonfuls of medicine—into darkly humorous moments, engaging us and turning our attention inward, to our own imaginations. A subtly hued image, almost a detail, of fabric catching fire over a stove walks this narrow line between torture and play, tenderness and terror, innocence and manipulation. By focusing on the insignificant moment or object, I amplify its significance, demonstrating how our imaginations can be triggered by even the most ordinary moments and things. It is a body of work that elaborates on deeply felt personal experience.
