In my photographic practice I tell personal stories from a woman’s point of view. I both perform and photograph my narratives. I use film in medium-size cameras for the physical and enduring quality of the final black-and-white prints. The magic elements of photography, such as double exposures, figure in my pictures.
My work is divided into three portfolios :
STORIES FROM INSIDE THE CAMERA links dramatic moments from my past with techniques of film photography and shows the full frame of the negative.
In the series YES AND NO IN MY SISTER SOUL, a mocking exchange with self is framed by numbers for negative film sensitivity. SHADOWBOXING IN MY FATHER’S EYE lists the F-stops on a camera lens, the seeing eye through which my little dramas are viewed. A fiction inside the camera casing, NOT MUCH FUN TO BE HIS OTHER ONE, plays out conflicts between couples. Letters in the margins refer to verbal storytelling.
ANIMAL TALES contains child’s play with adult meanings. In a connected series of tales, ESCAPEES FROM THE ZOO outcasts wear animal masks that accentuate their human urges and anxieties. They enact scenes that bring them closer. A separate animal tale, I MARRIED A CROCODILE, with a bride and a large, live reptile, questions our choice of partners.
SOCIAL MATTERS touches world affairs. The series AMERIKA and ¡QUE VIVA MEXICO! as well as PEOPLE OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT deal with historical and contemporary national icons. After the restraints during my career as documentary film-maker at the United Nations, I now feel free to comment on serious issues with both humor and personal engagement.
©2016 Victoria Schultz
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