Mapplethorpe Survey

As if looking into an abyss, my project, An Abyss of Glass, invites the viewer into a mesmerizing world of floating shapes and contours from an ethereal interplay of highlights and shadows captured on various glass objects.

Inspired in part by Jan Grover’s compositions that layer objects to create depth and, more importantly, her meticulously organized and arranged subject matter that created relationships between everything in the frame, whether it was the objects themselves or the space they occupied. However, rather than simply borrowing from Grover’s techniques, my project takes that inspiration in an unexpected direction by emphasizing the highlights reflected off the glass objects to create a unique interplay of light and shadow. This approach invites the viewer to explore the intricacies of the individual pieces and their relationships to one another. While my project borrows from the idea of creating a “push and pull” from the object’s location in the layered space, my shooting process sets it apart. Captured from under a sheet of glass, the layering starts at the picture plane, creating a sense of dimensionality that doesn’t reach out to the viewer but rather reseeds back into the abyss in a chaotic cacophony of ordered chaos.

As if looking into an abyss, my project, An Abyss of Glass, invites the viewer into a mesmerizing world of floating shapes and contours from an ethereal interplay of highlights and shadows captured on various glass objects.

Inspired in part by Jan Grover’s compositions that layer objects to create depth and, more importantly, her meticulously organized and arranged subject matter that created relationships between everything in the frame, whether it was the objects themselves or the space they occupied. However, rather than simply borrowing from Grover’s techniques, my project takes that inspiration in an unexpected direction by emphasizing the highlights reflected off the glass objects to create a unique interplay of light and shadow. This approach invites the viewer to explore the intricacies of the individual pieces and their relationships to one another. While my project borrows from the idea of creating a “push and pull” from the object’s location in the layered space, my shooting process sets it apart. Captured from under a sheet of glass, the layering starts at the picture plane, creating a sense of dimensionality that doesn’t reach out to the viewer but rather reseeds back into the abyss in a chaotic cacophony of ordered chaos.