Mediterranean House of Photography
Barcelona, Spain
Fran Forman
Telling Stories Throught Light and Shadows
Over many decades, I have been constructing new and imagined images out of existing photographs, staging scenes that often defy the laws of physics or perceived reality. These ‘photo-painting’ images integrate and juxtapose realism with illusion, truth with magic, hope with sorrow, light and shadow. I have long been drawn to and inspired by artists and art forms that evoke solitude, mystery, or self-reflection through color, chiaroscuro, and geometry. I pay particular homage to the patterns and abstractions of the mid-century American painter Edward Hopper, whose stark geometric compositions and solitary figures are absorbed in their interior lives and suggest the vague dark edges in everyday life. Drawing on 17th century Dutch and Flemish masters who elevated the use of light and shadow to create mood, I place my composited photographic figures within interior spaces, making use of chiaroscuro, color, perspective and harmony. And I am indebted to the great cinematographers, especially noir, with their stylized foreboding sparseness, slashes of light, and alienated protagonists.
The past few years have been filled with concern about threatening fascism, climate destruction, and the global recognition that racism and ignorance lies within the underbelly of American life. The images that I have created during the most recent months, in the series Time of Corona, further expand on the isolation, entrapment, and disconnection endemic in our current lives.
My images reflect this foreboding and expand on the noir tradition of looking at what lies beneath the illusory, sunny narrative of American life, while a slash of light through a portal can offer a measure of hope.
Before the Time of Corona, I traveled extensively to shoot various locations and models. My method of shooting is straightforward - with minimal gear, natural light, and only my Nikon DSLR or a small Sony. After uploading to my Mac, I catalogue the people, places, and objects that I have shot and sometimes do not return to them for weeks or months, if at all. When I do return to these images, I begin to look for relationships between them, stories they may generate, memories they may spur. I manipulate and move the individual parts around on the ‘canvas’ of my monitor, as if I were a choreographer experimenting with the shapes and movements of dancers on a stage. The process is intuitive and organic; rarely do I have a preconceived notion, but rather I let my unconscious be my guide.
I have come to understand the paradox that you cannot have light without casting shadows. Solid physical structures can house ambiguity and discontent. Relationships between people, cultures, and generations can sever, despite one’s hopes and best intentions. Light and shadow can tell stories that reside in that enigmatic moment between darkness and light, connection and absence, coming and going, not quite leaving nor arriving - the frozen moment in time, or the moment between moments where the direction one takes is not yet known.
Fran’s images have been exhibited widely, both locally and internationally, and are in many public and private collections including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Washington, DC), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Fran’s 2nd major award-winning monograph, The Rest Between Two Notes: Selected Work by Fran Forman, with 110 color plates and 224 pages, was published by Unicorn in 2020. Escape Artist: The Art of Fran Forman, another award-winner, was published by Schiffer Books in 2014. Fran’s work is featured in Contemporary Cape Cod Artists: People and Places, Photoshop Masking and Compositing, BETA Developments in Photography, and the magazines AAP, Internationales Magazin fur Sinnliche Fotografie (Fine Art Photo), The Hand, Blur, and Shadow and Light. Four separate monographs of Fran’s solo exhibitions were published by Pucker Gallery over the past decade.
Recent solo exhibitions were mounted at The Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, England, The Massachusetts State House (The Griffin Museum of Photography), AfterImage Gallery (Dallas), the University of North Dakota, Galeria Photo/Graphica (Mexico), and the Pucker Gallery (Boston), as well as numerous group shows. In the past decade, Fran has won many significant awards and prizes.
Fran is represented by AfterImage Gallery (Dallas), Pucker Gallery (Boston), Susan Spiritus Gallery (California), and Galeria Photo/Graphica (Mexico).
She is an Affiliated Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, a recipient of several grants and Artist Residencies, and is often asked to juror and curate photography competitions. She resides in the New England area.