STILL (2000 - 2007)

Temporal Reflections

Oceanscapes came out of a sudden reckoning, the discovery of a deep mystery in something so seemingly familiar. I have been coming to this place—the vantage point of these works—almost every year of my life. My parents brought me here; I bring my children here. We come here specifically to stop and do nothing, to read, to play, to think . . . just to be. I had looked at this view so very many times without ever really seeing. Until one day, there it was in front of me—ineffable, fathomless in every sense, overlooked and yet exactly what I had been looking for. I began making images from this single perspective, which continues to capture my attention.

I believe that as we mature, the various threads of our lives begin to weave together into a tapestry we can recognize. Those threads include the ties that bind one generation to another, sometimes through simple objects or sights. I could only have made these images as a result of all of these things coming together, memories that link me to my parents and to my children, some loose ends of my life beginning to intersect. These connections became form, a form I could recognize and respond to.

This project is about contemplation in an overstimulated, overtechnified world. It is about pausing—some of these exposures are quite long—patience, and discovery. The alchemy at work here is the combination of the palette of colors and light I have learned to anticipate through experience; the sight and insight one gains with age and maturity; and the unswerving dedication to a singular view, a kind of adventure in monogamy. It is my hope that these images encourage reflection and offer a moment’s rest.

Debra Bloomfield, 2004