Artist Statement
SEEING MUSIC
I have been exploring ways to see creative music for nearly 30 years. At first, documenting the musicians whose spiritual creativity moved my own creative soul, and eventually seeking to transform my intuitive experience of the music into the visual medium of photography. How does one photograph the music itself? The exhilaration for me is when light waves transcend the boundaries of sound and sight.
In the late 90s I experimented with movement and montage, seeking to abstract the feeling—rather than document the performer. I made very large mosaics in an attempt to reflect how all-encompassing the music felt to me. In 2001 I reluctantly crossed the digital divide and was surprised to find an instrument that could give voice to my vision.
I’m now exploring how pixels can explode into textures and colors beyond what is seen through the viewfinder. I approach it as a collaborative form of art making; when the music moves me, I move too—I don’t hold my camera still. Recently I showed my new work to flautist and composer Nicole Mitchell who commented that “it looks like what I see inside my head when I am playingâ€. My newest work returns to montage; reflecting rhythmic patterns which some musicians have compared with their own contemporary forms of musical composition and improvisation. My current process of composition has evolved from composing through the viewfinder of my camera to creating compositions on my computer where I find I can orchestrate images in infinite variations, as I seek to transform music through the alchemy of shadow and light.
Sisters of Soul
Nicole Mitchell
Streaming
Great Black Music Ensemble
Freedom Squared
Trumpet Fire (Maurice Brown)
Flute Pattern (Nicole Mitchell)
Power Stronger Than Itself (Corey Wilkes)
Prayer Rug (Edward Wilkerson)
Sound Vortex (Roscoe Mitchell)
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Matana Roberts and Nicole Mitchell
Ancient Rhythms
Body of Music Edwin Daugherty
Body of Music Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jon Faddis
Body of Music: David Boykin
Body of Music: Mwata Bowden
