ARTIST STATEMENT
The creative process is ever a mystery to me. As a child, I remember sitting down with a brush dipped in black ink, feeling as though an invisible hand moved my arm across a blank vellum page. The end result was a well-seen and well-executed drawing and that euphoric experience is still a fresh memory.
I am now struck again by those inexplicable questions of how we chose and why we need to create, and from where these potent forces are generated. Sometimes I wonder if these projects are inside of us, ever-present and unborn, just requiring the enigmatic confluence of head, heart, circumstance and time to be released. Or, do we somehow conjure them to manifest themselves through a mystifying alchemic intellectual, physical and metaphysical dance.
Having a formative background in painting and art history influenced my work as a photographer over the decades. I consider the frame within my viewfinder to be my canvas, and always strive to create the composition within its specific parameters. Chiaroscuro – the bold interplay and contrast between dark and light - has always been my signature method of seeing and photographing. I still chose to photograph with film for my personal work, as I love the alchemy of possibilities that can result in the image making and chemical processing. I also still love my old analog cameras for their simplicity as tools and their required suspension of trust because the resulting images can’t be viewed immediately. They are my paintbrushes of light. I do photograph with digital cameras for my professional work, but still feel that all photographic mediums are relevant and have unique properties.
Photography has been at the core of my life since I was a teenager, affording me professional success and an extraordinary unexpected personal journey. It gave me entrée into cultures where I wouldn’t necessarily have ventured into or lingered, and propelled me to face outward towards the greater world around me. It enabled me to comprehend history, the human condition and nature in ways that I wouldn’t have imagined. For all of this, I am very grateful.
Marissa Roth