Symbolic Objects - Web

Susan Derges expressed an interest in abstract art at an early age "it offered the promise of being able to speak of the invisible rather than to record the visible" before she took an interest in photography.

She followed a different direction and use photography without a camera after experiencing frustration at the way "the camera always seperates the subject from the viewer"

Much of her later work explored both the isolation and connection within nature. Her beautiful images portray deep and often mystrical meaning.

The 1991 series The Observer and The Observed looked at the connection of viewer and object. These image appeared as droplets of water that contain faces and at the same time showed her face with droplets suspended in her view. Her photographs based around scenes of natural portray a deeper dimension that stirs the viewers imagination.

The images shown above could represent a form of symbolism in the way they tell a story. The images have a cold, unhappy yet wimsical feel about them. The water droplets gives the impression of rain on a window through which the viewer is observing the subject and the subject is observing the viewer.

You can in interpret the Arch as symbolising travelling from a dark place into light. The beautiful scenery of nature, trees, blue sky and water are all captured in the confines of the archway tempting you to walk through; but is it an illusion?