Out of Darkness: Tama Hochbaum

Over the last months of our quarantine, I have felt a certain reluctance, an uneasiness. I have wondered about the worth of what we do and who might eventually care about it. Within that miasma, I have begun to be inspired by what I have encountered within the confines of my home and yard. I have photographed the changing cycles of thistles and cardoons in the yard and garden and double exposed them with either themselves or with, in the case of the last entry, a photo of a painting I did in 1980. I have photographed these flowers in sequence, to stand as a final image in nine parts, 3 rows of 3 in my iPhone camera roll. I use my macro lens for the capture and then double expose the grids in an iPhone app. Though these are, for the great majority, neither black and white nor do they have figures, I am always inspired by the great Noir films. My monograph, SILVER SCREEN, is entirely black and white, a tribute to my mom and inspired by the great films that she loved. There is darkness at the edges of these images, and sometimes overall, but there is surely clarity in the darkness, a dramatic chiaroscuro. As we move into the center, or a small part of the grid, there is light. These images are a departure for me; I began the quarantine making watercolors, painting from life in my back yard. I have moved, slowly, surely, back to photography, impacted by the months using paint. Color has returned in a large way (I was a painter for 20 years before I was a photographer) and will continue beyond these photographic images - I have plans to paint these pieces, as we move from darkness to light.

Tama Hochbaum