Susan Burnstine

I aksed my friend, Susan Burnstine, what she was featuring at Photo LA this weekend and it turns out that Susan will be represented by two galleries, Kevin Longino Fine Photographs from CT and TX and the Susan Spiritus Gallery from Newport Beach, CA. She's showing work from her series, Within Shadows: Flight. In addition, Susan's work was recently published in Rangefinder Magazine and she will be exhibiting at the Newspace Center for Photography in Portland in March.

Within Shadows
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes - Carl Jung

This ongoing body of work explores the fleeting moments between dreaming and waking – the blurred seconds in which imagination and reality collide.

Conceived as a trilogy, this project is presented in three successive chapters, On Waking Dreams, Between and Flight, which explore three states of mind: dreaming (subconscious), sleeping (unconscious), and waking (conscious). To create the images, I recall a significant metaphor, contemplative moment or pathway into the unknown from a dream the night before. I then capture the fading memory on film that very same day using details from my own imaginings to tap into the collective unconscious.

For these series, I wanted to find a way to portray my dream-like visions entirely in-camera, rather than with post-processing manipulations. To achieve this, I created twenty-one hand-made film cameras and lenses that are frequently unpredictable and technically challenging. The cameras are primarily made out of plastic, vintage camera parts and random household objects and the single element lenses are molded out of plastic and rubber. Learning to overcome their extensive limitations has required me to rely on instinct and intuition – the same tools that are key when attempting to interpret dreams.

On the Crest


Run


And Ever


In the Midst


At the Edge of Darkness


Threshold


Lift


and a few more that will not be at Photo LA....

Unfolding


Fringe


Clearance
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