'Girl' Portraits
By Leah Blom
In my first few years of taking photographs, I sought to capture ordinary moments in my life that seemed significant in the times of transitory youth. I’ve always been struck by a photograph’s ability to distill time and transform it into distinct artifacts, drawing upon the people and spaces captured in my life, and creating a space separate from this reality. There, I found a way to create meaning and give new significance to the narratives I saw forming around me, and in how I perceived my world. Ordinary things could be viewed for future reference and be given previously unrecognized importance when captured in their most natural state, transforming into precious gems when photographed. My photos, which are captured through the lens of memory, suggest the dreamy weight of nostalgia by preserving the moments, experiences and relationships of the present, including how memory shaped my life.
As I progress into adulthood and continue in my practice, I have taken this appreciation for dreamy, nostalgic sentiments as a foundation to create separate worlds found in the spaces emerging between reality and their photographic state. My current work makes use of undefined spaces, harnessing light and the subtle peculiarities of a distinct air, carried by my characters, to form a sense of detachment from reality.
I find myself drawn to taking photos of more feminine figures, for it is a quality that erupts with juxtaposing energies of softness and vibrancy, which define the undercurrents of the semi-constructed scenes in my work. The scenarios in my photographs emanate undefined narratives as stills; their displacement from reality articulates the sense of alienation that exists now — between my younger projections of life and now, as I approach the indeterminate experience that is growing up in an increasingly confusing world. I am interested in seeing how my unconscious projection of reality at this point time manifests in my photographs as an ambiguous expression of the space between girlhood and womanhood. ♦
