Artist talk

Artist Talk

On Wednesday, April 20 I attended the SMP presentation of Kathleen Overman. Her work included the motif of death, and coming to terms with the past. She gave a short power point presentation about their year's work, and how her chosen medium of photography was significant to the project at hand.

Kathleen's photography focused on the death of her parents, and coming to terms with the past. She began the talk by introducing her influences, and ideas pioneered by photographers Sudek and Frencesca Woodman. With Sudek, Kathleen sited his in his work the effective use of light. Light could be used as an element in a photograph to not only illuminate a subject or place, but to reveal a new perspective and view on the subject/ place. She also mentioned how connected Sudek was with his photographs, and how she came to realize how powerful and connected her photographers are to her. Woodman's influence on Kathleen is evident with Kathleen's subject matter in her pictures, as she mentioned that woodman could make anything beautiful. Kathleen manages to do the same with seemingly mundane objects and places with the help of her eye for composition and technical detail.

With her SMP Kathleen mentioned how she wanted to five a reverence and respect to her mothers things, and ultimately her mother, in the her film and digital prints. When taking her pictures she says that the camera became something like a friend, sharing with it her memories that were connected with her mother's things. This is exemplified in the series of pictures that she took where she is front of the camera showing it items she found in her mother’s drawers. She did this by positioning the camera mounted on a tripod in front of the drawers, as she stood in front and waved objects at in excitedly. This excitement is highlighted by the blurriness of her motion, which is done by setting the camera at a lower shutter speed. She most likely had to set it to a low shutter speed any way because of being inside a dimly lit room, but nonetheless this motion is effective in portraying to the viewer a sense of excitement while also producing a anxious and ghost like effect.

This friend that she found in the camera acts as an animator of inanimate objects in her photographs. She also stated that with her SMP she attempted to become apart of her home, and to let the thoughts of her family that are left in her house become apart of her.

After her presentation Kathleen answered a few questions from the audience. When asked whether she preferred digital or dark room photography, she immediately replied with dark room. She enjoys the tactile nature of the dark room, and appreciates the long and patience process and care that it takes to develop a photograph from start canister to fiber print. Technology is too easy for her, as it provides instant gratification. She is more interested in how the dark room reveals a picture to the photographer, and the amount of time spent with a single photograph.