Laura E Stanton, Photography
In this highly charged, evocatively mysterious work, Stanton has achieved a genuine haunting. Defining haunting as that which follows, that which one finds inescapably present, this photo functions as precisely the kind of imagery which stays with you long after you finish actually viewing it. Some details: the richly textured wallpaper, the impossible mirror image (subtly present and unblushingly mystical), the female’s seemingly unattainable purity (perfect complexion, perfect pose, perfect styling)… these amount to a setting of the stage for what the image DOES… which in this case to is to suggest an awesome series of signals upon a transcendent register. The woman is flesh but her white skin and the way it seemingly blends into the ambient light almost render her a phantom. Her curves are luscious indeed, but the perfection with which they are placed in the composition’s frame seems almost machine like. Everything in this photograph seems to dance around the oppositions between organic/technical, beautiful/everyday, present/dreamlike… These oppositie signals render their own synthesis aesthetically. That is, the beauty of the image is what makes it make sense. That is why the impossible reflection seems so natural, and why the image frozen in time seems almost about to take the next step in terms of movement. As if it were a video still about to be unpaused… This is tremendous work. Technical merit of the highest order. I absolutely celebrate its erotic evocation of the beauty of woman, the eternal return of the feminine divine, the implication that via photography one can manipulate everyday reality into something which elevates the viewer and by which such effects are consistent and reward patient research and investigation. High Art!!
-STANLEY GEMMELL
