In my lens-based composite, “Jailhouse Quartet,” which I created in 2019, the grid is part of the rusted steel strap lattice that makes up the walls of the outdoor Kelso Depot Jail in the Mojave Preserve (the jail was used from the mid-1940s to 1985 to detain inebriated folks). The two-cell jail sits next to…
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When I created this photo-based composite image, a pandemic of any sort was the last thing on my mind. The artwork was inspired by the tension between a marquee sign at a train station, “Your Ticket Out,” and a nearby iron fence. (The passerby was just conveniently walking on the other side.) Fast forward three…
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Yesterday marked a new high in the death toll in the US from COVID-19 (nearly 4,000), alongside a new low in the history of American democracy. I decided that this focus-stacked macro image, Dark Matter, expressed both events by depicting the chaos, uncertainty, and turbulence in the road ahead. Copyright © 2021 Steven…
Read MoreHurtling towards the future, a new day, a new year filled with hope and light in 2021. To all the readers, artists, contributors of The Pandemic Lens, I wish you a safe, happy, and healthy New Year ahead! Copyright © 2021 Steven Edson Steve EdsonThe camera works to document the external, but more…
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I can’t think of a more fitting symbol for hope in the new year than milkweed seeds. Each seed is poised to be carried aloft by the wind, harboring potential for new growth wherever it lands. Milkweed plants uniquely nourish caterpillars of Monarch butterflies, creatures of beauty and brilliant examples of the interconnectedness within native…
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This video post began with one of my composite/abstracted images of desert and sky, called Tenacity. Motion designer Luis Socorro help bring the piece it to life, adding a cosmic touch to the composition. We are a tenacious lot. Be well and be safe! Copyright © 2020 Steve Bennett Steve BennettSteve Bennett is…
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When I created Pangean Dream earlier this year, my goal was to produce a surreal study of extreme contrasts. Like all of my composite artwork, Pangean Dream began with literal photographs. I then used digital tools to bend, break, and blend the images. As the process unfolded, intention gave way to accident as the lines…
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There is a story that Italian artist and Picasso contemporary Gino Severini willingly gave his broken (and therefore useless) camera to Picasso, who was curious about the odd images it produced. Picasso played with his new toy and ultimately realized that it showed him a new way to paint. Thus cubism was born. In the…
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As we await the results of the 2020 election, I keep looking at a composite image, Interlude, that I created last year. At first glance, it’s a mundane, albeit surreal, piece about waiting for the next train. But look carefully, and you’ll see that it is not a mundane scene at all—something is very much…
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This composite image, which I created a year ago, was meant to depict the concept of being suspended in liminal space. The crosswalk is the ultimate symbol of liminality. When you’re in a crosswalk, you’re nowhere, really, trying to get from one block to another. In “Liminal Space,” there is no discernible destination, no “here.”…
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