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Pamela Waldroup – Portraits: Interconnected
July 1, 2021 - July 24, 2021
FREE
Pamela Waldroup - PORTRAITS: Interconnected
Artists Exhibition Dates: July 1 – July 24, 2021
Artists’ Reception: Saturday, July 10th from 4-7 PM
Bio/Artist Statement:
PORTRAITS: Interconnected emerged as a series while revisiting images of people, past and present and intentionally deciding to voice more transparently the importance of the completely unavoidable relationship between artist and subject. How much of a portrait is truly a “self-portrait?”
Each portrait is not just an image of the person. It is also a visual representation of some part of me, a narrative about what is in or missing from my life …a glimpse of the passion, fascinations and fears that I have. The images are not about what the people look like, they are about power, elegance, strength, familiarity, grace, gratitude, pride in one’s work, and attention to quirky details that personify, distinguish and define a moment forever.
Isolated for months during this past year, I was not unique in looking at the past and the present under a microscope. I found myself both narrowing my focus and expanding it exponentially as I revisited images, old and new, and realized the interconnections I had with these friends and strangers … and subsequently, an awareness of the ability on my part to present my strengths and vulnerabilities through their portraits.
The portraits that I have chosen to exhibit span 20 years and speak to the significance of many of my life experiences at a given moment in time. Discovering which portraits spoke loudly to me was a solitary process validated through much personal reflection and writing. The close proximity of the subject, the cropped compositions, the formality or lack of it and the softness or harshness of the light were captured and heavily edited to reflect my interconnections with the people in front of me while bringing their powerful personalities to life.
I know myself better as a result of shooting these images, spending hours editing and re-editing to get the just the right emotional punch in a digital image, and then editing again to convey the same passion in an archival print.
“This looks nothing like me, but I know myself better now.” (Kiki Farish, Professor, Meredith College, North Carolina,)