As an artist I am concerned with defining the distance between things— the distance from oneself, from one’s environment, from other people.  The Distance From Oneself is a project employing pinhole photography combined with digital imaging that directly addresses the idea that as humans, we function at a certain distance from the physical world.  While our bodies are situated in a specific locations and time, our minds are free to wander away from that place— forward and backward in time, or laterally elsewhere.  Questions that I am interested in include:  Can a photograph be a visual manifestation of longing and separation when referencing the present and the future?  Can a photograph speak about the distance one is from oneself— where one is physically and the place one would rather be?  How much of one’s life is a third person experience, cheating oneself of the present?  Is it possible to be nostalgic for the present or even the future?  This work is a visual exploration of uncertainty and the human condition, mapping the disconnect between psychological and physiological experience.

          Many photographers examine nostalgia in the traditional sense, as a desire to return to or capture the essence of a former time and place.  In contrast, my investigation of nostalgia is not for something that is past but for the ever-illusive present and the future that is racing to replace it.  In this body of work I use a homemade pinhole camera to make exposures of my surroundings.  The pinhole camera’s characteristic soft focus and wide angle of view distort space, warping and pulling it in such a way as to put more distance between photographer and place, the audience and subject.  From there I digitally manipulate the images, sometimes combining environments to exaggerate this gap.  In doing so I remove a solid point of visual reference with the intention of causing confusion and disorientation as a way to draw attention to the mental dislocation from physical experience.  The process of combining old and new technology parallels the conceptual concerns of the project.  Pinhole photography captures a romantic impression of a scene rather than an inventory of details.  With contemporary subject matter and digital manipulation I am able to undermine some of the pinhole camera’s associations/ connotations and create tension by pushing the amount of information I can pack into a pinhole image while still retaining certain distinguishing qualities.

Michelle Given