TOKYO-2020 People / Self-Portrait

A Long History of Dark Sleep

  • Prize
    Silver in People/Self-Portrait
  • Photographer
    Diane Fenster
  • Technical Info
    Ipad Air, Hipstamatic Tintype App
  • Photo Date
    2020

Anxiety and insomnia self-portraits in the time of Covid-19. I sleep alone, but fear is my lover. We embrace fretfully and stare at the ceiling. At this late hour, it is my chance to to photograph the noir that surrounds me and find some truth and perhaps beauty in the dead of night. The camera comes to bed with me and a flashlight is my light-source. Coming face to face with potential death carried on the breeze by an invisible agent propels me to self-examination. My aim is fretful, the focus unsteady. It's all about chance, isn't it, what the lens captures, who gets the virus.

I view myself as an alchemist, using alternative process, antique photographic methods, toy camera and digital tools to delve into fundamental human conditions and issues. My work is literary and emotional, full of symbolism and multiple layers of meaning with a style that marries photography with evocative and fragmented imagery. Currently, I am exploring several antiquarian processes including lumen printing and photo-encaustic. My work (exhibited since 1990) first received notice during the era of early experimentations with digital imaging and has appeared in numerous publications.