Claire Seidl- 2003
"A Sense of Place": Fotophile, Issue #44: September

Some viewers see my photographs as "abstract", but they are rooted in the real world of nighttime, children and landscape. Because I am a painter, as well as a photographer, elements intrinsic to abstract painting like gestural line, multiple layered space, and ambiguous forms and content are important elements in the photographs.

The photographs are not manipulated, but they do show more than the unassisted eye can see. I use long exposures; I shoot reflections and distortions through old glass, water, screens. I shoot at night, using flashlights, headlights, sparklers, and the moon.

The specifics of place and people and natural phenomena are familiar, even dear to me. The photographs are as much about a sense of place as they are about anything else. And this sense of place is derived in part from the need to find a place to stand, so I can tell where I am.

Claire Seidl

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