Fine Art Photography – Page 2 – Michelle LaRiviere

The Mixed States Project

Mixed States is a new project that uses archival photographs and double-exposure to explore themes of loss, identity, and emotional connection. By merging past and present it creates a portal through which the invisible space where human connectivity resides is revealed. In this first stage of the project, I’ve merged my father’s face with my own in a series of compelling portraits, where he and I become one person while at the same time retaining our own unique individualities.

To see and learn more about Mixed States, it is located under Projects on the menu bar at the top of this page. Thank you so much for dropping by, and please feel free to leave your comments or start a conversation.

Timeless

This is what I know…
The core of being
is a timeless ghost
born yesterday
and every day
through every word
and every thought
caressing the heart
of the matter.

Me?
I am ageless—
the same as yesterday,
with tomorrow frozen
in last night’s dream
of what will be
but never is
because this morning,
to no one’s surprise,
it was today,
and I am still
right here
right now
forever in this moment.

Oh, but for today…
that place,
that state,
that familiar constant
where time stands still,
and where we breathe
the essence of ourselves
until the last exhale,
which will not be tomorrow
but some other today
not unlike this one.

Yet… anchored as I am to the moment,
I no longer recognize myself,
not in the mirror,
not in the mortal reflection
of my outer shell
no…
but oh,
in the photos,
in the miracle of arrested time traveled
forward and permanently captured
oh yes,
there is the soul of me
the familiar one
suspended in animation
transcending the veil of decay.

The past twenty four hours have been insanely productive with much thought, contemplation, and creation. Yesterday I was feeling out of sorts, in a rut, and thinking that I was in need of a new metaphor for my life. I’m done riding the roller coaster… there’s got to be another picture that fits. The image below was an attempt to articulate the feeling, which got me thinking about these old photos of myself that have been surfacing, which then split off in two different directions—one in the form of a fully formulated project, MIXED STATES, and the other in the form of the poem above, Timeless.

And that’s how I roll… barely at all, or fast and hard in explosive creativity. The images below are from the Mixed States Project, fully fledged and barely twelve hours old. Enjoy, and thanks so much for stopping by.

Ophélie: un état d’âme

Inspired by Sir John Everett Millais’ painting, Ophelia, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I spent several years documenting staged scenes in and under water (both in photography and video), but only a fraction of the material was ever used – for a short video entitled, Hush, and a series of digital collages, including Incommunicado.

The photos depicted here are from a shoot in 2009 that took place in Quebec, where I spent a weekend with a group of artist friends from Montreal and Paris. Alex (above) was making a short film, in which we all took part, either as actors or grips, and I was working on my Ophelia Project, for which my friends spent hours floating in a chilly stream.

Somehow along the way my project stalled, and the photos remained buried in my computer until now. I’ve begun the process of shortlisting and editing a selection in order to finally bring this work to light.

This post is in honour of Alex, who passed away earlier this year. He would have wanted me to finish what I started. This is the beginning.

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