Revision of Lynn Silverman from Mon, 12/16/2019 - 20:26

About Lynn

Following graduation with a BFA in photography, Lynn moved to Australia in 1975. She fell in love with the country’s vast inland desert landscape. After spending all her life in an urban environment, it was a challenge to depict a space extending over thousands of miles that defied traditional pictorial conventions. Photographs of this landscape was the subject of her first one-person exhibition, Horizons (1981), at the National Gallery… more

Interior Lights

2019
Single Channel Video with Stereo Sound 4:33

Using animated black and white photographs with sound, Interior Lights depicts an imaginary house that is a composite of views drawn from different homes. The film features ordinary lamps that reveal close ups of furniture and objects such as family photographs, artwork, and other personal effects on display. The soundtrack, composed by Jason Sloan, is drawn from audio recordings of the sound generated by the electromagnetic field unique to each light source depicted in the video. Light and sound are the connecting threads as the camera makes its way from the basement to the attic, highlighting intimate details of domestic life along the way.

Interior Lights: Embedded video media on Vimeo

Password: mem0ryf04m

Lifelines, 1994-2019

The conveyance of energy is a fundamental concern in Lifelines, my ongoing series of photographs depicting electric cords. Some of the cables have been repaired many times. I am struck by the effort to ensure the flow of electricity before the objects are re-wired and the old cords finally thrown away.

At least one of the cables shown in the image powers the light source that illuminates the scene. Like the activity of drawing which employs line and shading, the cable may change its identity from a crisp line to a faint trace as if it was a ray, wave, particle, halo or flare of light. The narrative aspect of the cord’s trajectory and the use of everyday materials impart a palpable quality to the light. My rendering of the cord is a way of giving life to light.

Lifeline 94.47.12

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 18 1/2 x 23 inches
Landscape after the Battle (Lifeline 17.01.08)

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 18 1/2 x 23 inches
Warning (Lifeline 09.19.05)

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 18 1/2 x 23 inches
Lifelines 09.10.12

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 18 1/2 x 23 inches
Lifeline 06.18.06

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 23 x 18 1/2 inches
Crossing the Desert (Lifeline 10.11.07)

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 18 1/2 x 23 inches
Hold On (Lifeline 18.03.08)

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 23 x 18 1/2 inches
Let Go (Lifeline 18.05.05)

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 23 x 18 1/2 inches
Below the Surface (Lifeline 06.26.02)

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 18 1/2 x 23 inches
Soldier On (Lifeline 19.08.09)

Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 18 1/2 x 23 inches

Exhale, 2012-Present

This photograph depicts the flare from several lights illuminating the edge of a surface. For me, the image toggles between being a landscape or still life.

Exhale 12.04.11

2012, Black and white gelatin silver print from medium format negative, 18 1/2 x 23"

Between Two Fronts (Lamp and Comet)

1997-2018

This photograph features two adjacent images taken on the same strip of film. On the left side, the flare from a lamp reacts to the shutter's movement. The succeeding photograph on the right tracks a comet and stars moving through the night sky. In addition to combining radically different spaces, I want to make the light more physically present.

Between Two Fronts (Lamp and Comet).jpg

Black and white archival pigment print from medium format negative, 24 x 39"

Between Two Fronts (Lamp and Moon)

1997-2018

This photograph features two adjacent images taken on the same strip of film. On the left side, the flare from a lamp spills over into the space between adjacent frames. The succeeding photograph on the right depicts a half moon in the night sky. In addition to combining radically different spaces, I want to make the light more physically present.

Between Two Fronts (Lamp and Moon).jpg

Black and white archival pigment print from medium format negative, 24 x 33"

Skylight (Light Catcher), 1994-present

The reflection of an interior lamp overlaps the light of the setting sun visible through a window. This is an example of how inside and outside spaces are brought together through the use of light and reflections.

Skylight (Light Catcher)

1994, Black and white archival pigment print from medium format negative, 24 x 29"

Lightheaded

1997-2003

For this series, a single transparent light bulb is enlarged to approximately the size of a human head. The photographs record the bulb’s interaction with other actual or reflected lights. A variety of relationships are explored between these reflections and the varying intensity of illumination from the bulb’s filament. For me, the lights from the reflected lamps are evocative of memories, voices, or people that have left their mark, and how light can be a metaphor for both individual and collective presence.

Lightheaded, Solo No. 1

Black and white uncoated silver print from medium format negative, 15 x 19"
Lightheaded, Solo No. 3

Black and white uncoated silver print from medium format negative, 15 x 19"
Lightheaded, Solo No.4

Black and white uncoated silver print from medium format negative, 15 x 19"
Lightheaded, Solo No. 5

Black and white uncoated silver print from medium format negative, 15 x 19"
Lightheaded, Solo No. 11

Black and white uncoated silver print from medium format negative, 15 x 19"
ls_lightheaded_solo_12.jpg

Black and white uncoated silver print from medium format negative, 15 x 19"
Lightheaded, Duo No. 4

4 black and white uncoated silver prints from medium format negatives, 19 x 23" each

Stills from A House Full of Light

2019 - Present

A House Full of Light is a video work-in-progress and expands on themes explored in my animation Interior Lights. In addition to the situations depicted in Interior Lights, these digital images include views of animals, plants, and windows at night.