Rummaging through boxes of photos today, I came upon these photos I made years ago. The one on the left is from Joshua Tree National Park. The one on the right is a "cliche-verre" or photographic drawing of sorts that I made with ink on plastic of a dying flower in a vase. Years later I instantly saw a connection. Could it be we are affected by the same forms, spirit, lines, over and over again, responding to some more than to others? Maybe these are about rising and falling, staying alive though being crippled in some way, existing in a space and environment that is stronger than we are.
In 2013, the Basque director Oskar Alegria introduced his film " The Search for Emak Bakia" at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival. An exceptional experimental film, it weaves documentary, storytelling, and history while revealing aspects of Man Ray's time in the Basque Country that are difficult to appreciate otherwise. Emak Bakia means "leave me in peace" in Basque and it was also the name of the house that Man Ray lived in. In this movie there are scenes of women sleeping whose eyes are captured just at the moment of awakening. These reminded me of some of my favorite Man Ray photos, such as the one of Kiki de Montparnasse. http://emakbakiafilms.com/fotos/?pid=1 Kiki and the African Mask, by Man Ray 1926