TWO WORLDS
There are two worlds, the world inside and the world outside.
The artwork that comes from the world inside is the culmination of my mind’s eye–a fantasy world where, through my imagination, anything is possible. I enthusiastically partner with intelligent machines and together we create an artificial reality. A simulated world of superheroes, erotic men and women, wireframe meshworks, anatomical investigations, cybernetic creatures, phantasmagoric depictions of impossible people, places and things. Although these artworks often resemble our photoreal existence, these creations are utterly unreal and sometimes uncanny.
My motivation for working with intelligent machines is the exhilarating transcendental journey at the interface. There is nothing like it–an alternate nervous system, an energetic force field of artistic expression with a mind of its own.
iNFINITY by Shelley Lake, 2019 Exhibition at the School of Visual Arts, New York City
I partner with machines to create an image and again to create a print. In site specific floor to ceiling applications, I splice inkjet printed panels together to form a larger whole. Three dimensional print technology is gaining increasing sophistication. The two dimensional wall print coupled with its digital sculptural companion is another approach of many.
The artwork that comes from the world outside involves another intelligent partnership, the camera. Here the machine is an optical extension of the eye, the sensor an analog for memory. With camera in hand, I discover the world around me in search of extraordinary people, places and things.
“I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us, which can mold us, but which can also be affected by us. A balance must be established between these two worlds – the one inside us and the one outside us. As the result of a constant reciprocal process, both these worlds come to form a single one. And it is this world that we must communicate.”
– The Decisive Moment, Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1952
What I love most about photojournalism is that something is “really” happening. I take pleasure in representing the moment decisively. For me, it is the authenticity of our shared cultural experience, the majesty of the animal kingdom, the grandeur of the American west, the face, the athleticism of the ballet, electron microscopic studies of the infinitely small, astrophotography of the most distant galaxies, the spectacle of human anatomy, the urban jungle, the historic moment frozen in time, seeing the unseen.
The 2020 Presidential Election is an extraordinary opportunity to engage and participate in the American political imagination. Events leading up to the election have a grip on me. I am compelled to converge, focus and concentrate on the faces of the campaign. Who will capture the hearts and minds of the American public? In search of the quintessential portrait. The face is the narrative–the story of the face and the face of the story–the enigma behind the mask.