Emma Powell

In Search of Sleep

September 6 - October 27, 2013

From my earliest days I have had a difficult relationship with sleep. As a child I avoided it at all costs, especially at night. To get me back to bed, my father used to tell me stories. They were not traditional children’s bedtime stories, but invented tales that began on our quiet street and journeyed down open drains to a dreamworld of caverns, forests, and oceans full of unexpected animals and dangers. The story would always find its way back to the real world and end where it had begun, hopefully but doubtfully with me that much closer to sleep. In Search of Sleep recreates this shadowy realm and allows me to explore my real life questions, from personal dramas to romantic doubts. The cyanotype process, with its distinctive blue tones, visually traverses the distance between waking and sleeping. These images are also toned with tea and wine to both dull the blues and add warmth. Tea, wine, cyanide – all three of these substances relate to different levels of consciousness that often mirror the mental states evoked by my photographs. In Search of Sleep creates a visual lullaby that allows me to safely explore what I love, what I fear, what I remember, and what I imagine.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Emma Powell's work has been widely exhibited in the U.S. and Canada and has toured England through the Royal Photographic Society's 156th International Print Exhibition.Her work has received numerous awards in exhibitions and competitions includingPHOTOCentric 2013, TPS 22 Texas Photographic Society International Competition,Onward 13 at Project Basho and Px3 Prix de Photographie and Grand Prix de la Découverte, International Fine Art Photography Award in Paris. Her work is held in public collections at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Center for Fine Art Photography; Ft. Collins, CO; George Eastman House Study Center, Rochester, NY and Seities Museum, Calgary, Alberta. She holds an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and a BFA from the College of Wooster. https://www.emmapowell.photo/