This series is inspired by my poem ‘Meet Me in My Dreams”. The images are created using wet plate collodion. I scan and enlarge them to enhance the organic qualities of the medium. The work speaks to family, memory, and the ethereal passage of time.
The setting for many of the images is a fairytale landscape where the elements provide a living, breathing setting for the figures to exist. The young adult or ghostlike figures invite exploration by the viewer.
I was profoundly impressed by old photo albums I found with snapshots of my mother as a teenager with her friends hanging out at a river or on a beach and except for the clothing, they could have been taken of my teenagers yesterday. The emotive energy of their limitless potential practically bursts out of the photo.
I use the young people as a way of celebrating this universal feeling that most people experience at one point or another in their youth.
The ghostlike figures are reflections of the later years when beauty and youth begin to fade. They suggest the feeling that one is beginning to disappear and yet still present and observing the scene.
These are the elements of my dreams. -MaryAnne Mitchell
”Meet Me in My Dreams”
Walking through the forest of my dreams
I see a varied cast of characters.
Some are known
And some are strangers.
Some are real,
Some imagined.
I catch a glimpse of something and I look again
And nothing is there…
Perhaps scattered by the wind.
My eyes are tricked by the play of light
On each and every tree,
I sometimes think I’m not alone
And someone watches me.
The stories told are mine alone.
Imagination fuels my memories and
My vision is revealed.
I invite you to come and meet me in my dreams.
Bio
Mary Anne Mitchell is a fine art photographer living in Atlanta, GA. She works primarily with analog processes. The current series is shot with wet plate collodion. She was a finalist in the 8th Julia Cameron Awards and exhibited at the 4th Biennial of Photography in Berlin this fall. Her work has been exhibited across the US and Canada in solo and group shows.
www.maryannemitchellphotography.com
