Three Photographs by María DeGuzmán
AT THE CLIFF’S EDGE CONSULTING THE ORACLE
FINALLY THEY OPENED THE DOOR TO AQUA MARINA
CAT OBSERVING A DANCER COMPOSED OF CHAKRAS
A NOTE FROM THE ARTIST
These photographs are the truly curious result of experimenting with smoky, milky, and clear quartz, fully exposed to blazing sunshine.
The complex “haunting” imagery we see in the photographs results from refraction and diffraction, occurring alongside other dynamics. For me, the haunted aspect of this work is not merely the result of the spectral qualities of the images, but also derives from the ways in which these photographs unexpectedly capture threshold experiences.
The images in this series tap into what philosopher, theorist, and cultural critic Walter Benjamin referred to as the optical unconscious—instantaneous, fleeting and, thus, largely “hidden” phenomena that surpass our ability to see in the moment, but that are nevertheless there, waiting to be revealed through the photographic process. The continual interpretive perception on the part of viewers, myself included, determines and enlarges exactly what we see “there,” at the point when our conscious vision connects with the optical unconscious inherent in the images.
Within each of these photographs are multiple and various scenes. The more you study the images, the more scenes you are likely to spot—or, is it, conjure—to bring into potentially acknowledged existence?
María DeGuzmán is a scholar, professor, photographer, writer, and music composer. Her photographic work has been exhibited at The Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, Massachusetts), Watershed Media Centre (Bristol, England), and Golden Belt Studios (Durham, North Carolina). She has also published photography in many journals. SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/mariadeguzman