Statement
The images presented here have been brought together specifically in response to Nancy McCrary’s kind invitation to be part of the return of the SXSE magazine to the internet but also in response to persistent questions for myself. What am I looking for in my images? What holds them together for me? Is there a connection among the various types and techniques? My only partially intentional break this past year from photographic pursuits has given me time to ponder and reflect. I am grateful to Nancy for the opportunity to see if, perhaps, I have connected a few dots and achieved some insights.
This period of retrospection and introspection began with an exhibit in late 2023. Entitled All of a Piece, the rationale was that a disparate grouping of objects and images from childhood to the present were intimately related to each other. The title was a spur of the moment decision but, as is so often the case, my subconscious had been at work. Over the next year I took note of other words and phrases that echoed in my mind.
Absence. Loss. Loneliness. Emptiness.
Traces. Remnants. Passages. Longing.
Falling in. Transitional spaces.
The words spoke of nothingness but there was a tangible something there. In all of my favorite shots, I have had an immediate sense of “there it is, it’s here.” My heart skips a beat. I catch my breath. This is not nothing but what is it? Gradually, one phrase repeatedly came to the fore. An old phrase, coined for a long lost loved one who is still conspicuous in his absence. And that’s it. Conspicuous absence. Surely countless others have found it, too, but this is my journey. This is how I found it. Now I know what I have been looking for.
The very presence of absence.
In the images presented here, the Time Tunnel Quartet is from a series of travel pictures taken about eight years ago. It was around that time that the sensation of “there it is” was emerging strongly. “It” was either there or it was not. It was not just composition and lighting and subject matter. I could not force it. What I could do was be attuned to it.
The same has proven true with the ongoing color series of interiors. Each one has been a single shot. A moment of acute knowing. An attraction to spaces and passageways within structures and objects. An invitation to the viewer as well as to myself to fall into the image, to feel a connection to what is there and to what is not.
Of the remaining black and white images, those with figures have an obvious connection to all of the preceding. The abstract, the still life and the odd architectural ornament are not so obvious to me but I have included them because they each give me that “it’s here” feeling. Now I have more questions for myself. Why?
Bio
Carolyn Hollingsworth lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. Photography has been a lifelong passion but she also enjoys working in various other media. She holds BFA and MFA degrees from Georgia State University where she made a valiant effort to study everything on offer in the art department.
Contact
https://www.instagram.com/cfh_fineartphotography/
