Marta Bisbal says of her work, "I am interested in photography as contemplation, also as a vital way of approach and discovery of the surroundings. Understood in this sense, photography is a slow practice that allows me to take consciousness of reality and present. In projects, I deal with the concepts of space, time, emptiness, fullness and the relations that are established among them based on the influence of light, which determines and modifies them continuously.

By taking pictures, I don’t search a decisive instant but, on the contrary, both the previous moment and the following one can have the same meaning. In fact, by means of the addition or ensemble of moments, I can go in depth into phenomena that are repeated in a cyclic way. I try to express myself through a language based on the appreciation of minimum variations and movements. I am attracted by the idea of exploring things that could go unnoticed, since this research brings me to think about perception and the act itself of looking.
 
I lived for some time in the new house with almost empty rooms. I soon realised that a spectacle of light and shadows took place on the walls, as banal as it was extraordinary. Night and day, light either flooded the room or filtered subtly through the blinds. I began to observe it and to let myself be observed by it: deliberate, transient, ever changing. As I wondered about perception, I was gradually enthralled by these walls and the moments of contemplation became increasingly intense. Interwoven with the cosmic movement, the light dramatised its passage by daily integrating the register of slight variations with perfect precision. Hence, this was an eloquent expression of the Greek Kosmos: an essential order that permeates all surfaces, all dimensions, from the most minute to the vastest, from the physical to the immaterial. The camera, acting as a double of the room in reverse, reproduced the Kosmos and gave shape to a film on light, silence and stillness."
 
Marta Bisbal is a visual artist. She was born in Catalonia (Spain) in 1974. Graduated and Ph.D. in Law, Master of Journalism. In 2010 she opts for visual arts as a tool of research and personal reflection and studies Photography. At present, she lives and works in Lleida.
 
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2016. Kosmos. Outono Fotográfico. Espazo de Arte Roberto Verino, Ourense (02/11-30/11). Curated by Vítor Nieves.

2016. Kosmos. L’aparador, Museu Abelló, Mollet del Vallès (07/07-09/10). Curated by Isabel Lázaro.

2016. Kosmos. Centre Cívic Pati Llimona, Barcelona (18/02-14/03).

2015-2016. Kosmos. Sala Kursala, Universidad de Cádiz, Cádiz (04/12- 29/01). Curated by Jesús Micó. 2014-2015. Kosmos. The Showroom, Madrid (17/09-15/01).

2014. Kosmos. Sala Gòtica, Institut d’Estudis Ilerdencs, Lleida (26/06- 14/09). Curated by Anselm Ros.
 
www.martabisbal.com
 

Michael Jantzen says of his work, "Revealing The Human Spirits In Nature is a series of digital photomontages that explore ways in which new and thought-provoking images can be created through the manipulation of the hidden symmetry in nature, which resembles human forms, suggesting the true origins of mankind in the natural world.

Digital photos were taken of sections of various varieties of trees, grasses, etc. These photos were then loaded into a computer where they were cut and pasted into mirrored images of themselves. This was done by doubling the original photos into various symmetrical forms.

These manipulated images were then examined for evidence of human like facial characteristics. The facial characteristics were often enhanced by adding cutout images of my eyes, and/or by adding color to certain portions of the photos.
The final photomontages are meant to symbolize the close physical and spiritual roots that we as humans have with the other life forms on the planet earth.

My work is very well known around the world. It has been featured in thousands of articles in books, magazines, newspapers, and on the Web. My work has been shown in many galleries, and on various TV documentaries. It has also been exhibited at the National Building Museum, the Canadian Center for Architecture, the Harvard School of Design and Architecture, and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Most of my work merges art, architecture, technology, and sustainable design into one unique experience. Extreme innovation is my goal in everything I create. Most of this innovation has been focused on the re-invention of the built environment, and photography."

 http://archinect.com/michael-jantzen/projects
 
www.michaeljantzenstudio.com
 
www.michaeljantzen.com
 

Michael Wynne says of his work, "I'm a London-based artist who has been making artist's books and photobooks since 2012. I have participated in the New York Art Book Fair and the I Never Read Art Book Fair in Basel. My books include The Bathhouse Hornbook, My Life in Masturbation, Look Dick Look, and the photobooks In His Sleep, Body Part, and You the Boxer, amongst others.
 
The images I'm sending are of a man shaving his body hair. I'm interested in desirability, what we do to make ourselves desirable, and how (male) grooming questions received ideas of masculinity. The lie of masculinity is that men don't fret over their appearance. Real men, we are told, are rugged, scruffy, unshaven. But men remove their body hair down to the root, and if men do it, it must be manly. Body hair is often seen as a symbol of our animalistic tendencies, and so, at a time in history when our bestial nature is being played out on the world stage, trimming down these tendencies feels apt and welcome.
 
I work to capture people in intimate poses, the kind of poses they might get into if they were on their own: playing, shaving, exploring their sexuality, running wild in nature. My aim is to get the people I photograph to ignore me, to become involved in something they love doing, or something they want to experiment with."
 
https://kissandtellpress.com/
 

Pascaline Doucin-Dahlke is a contemporary painter and digital artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. She is licensed as an architect in France who has pursued in parallel an art education in both France and the United States. Being in Los Angeles and a region of constant visual interaction, she has enjoyed developing in parallel two distinct forms of artistic expression which both use traditional and contemporary tools that are complementary.

For each new series, she develops a fresh pictorial vocabulary with different techniques that conveys the singularity of a particular environment.

Her artistic research focuses on the definition of space, light, and graphic limits within a nonconventional approach through vibrant colors and textures that resonate through the photographs and paintings. Overall, her paintings and digital artworks remain within a classic aesthetic harmony.
 
As her personal conviction, she considers art, for both the artist and the viewer, “an uplifting and challenging experience filled with emotions.
 
Solo Exhibition:

“Why White?”, Sidewalk HTS gallery. Pasadena – Oct 2015

Corporate, Private and Public Commission:

Mural for Horace Mann School Cafeteria in Beverly Hills, 2010

Illustration for a children book “Qui dit quoi”, 2008

CD cover concepts for Kosmic Music Inc., 2007

Art commission for private residence "Path to Faith" in California about the Orthodox religion in Middle East, 2007

Art commission for Chinese New Year 2008 light poles banners in Los Angeles Chinatown (year of the Rat) and 2007 (year of the Pig)

Art commission for a digital printed design above the entrance of the Belmont condominium building in Milwaukee, 2007

Art commission for paintings inside the Kabuki restaurant in City Walk, Universal Studios, California, May 2006

Art commissions from the City of Los Angeles for eighty banners along Pico Blvd., March 2002

Art commission for “Mr. Marcel” grocery store at the Farmer’s Market, L.A, California, March 200

Art commission for paintings inside the Wasabi sushi bar. Design of the outdoor umbrellas for both Wasabi and Shanghai Mein restaurants in Citywalk, Universal Studios, California, April 2000

www.pascalinedoucindahlke.com

Paul Moore says of his work, "I am and have always been a photographer, earlier influences were Wynn Bullock, Brett Weston, Minor White and Paul Caponigro. 

I started meditation shortly after my realization that photography was a personal medium of expression, a medium connected to my unconscious self.  My practice of mediation led me to a deeper appreciation of the medium and my connection to the process self-referral expression. 

One of my recurring subjects is the wall.  Flat and linear, yet when seen and captured in Camera they transform to deep and undulating, a mirror of our own consciousness, infinite being.

I am likewise taken by the depth of space in front of the camera that translates to flatness, a landscape becomes a wall. This visual seesaw of flatness from depth and depth from flatness conveys the ability of the image to transcend the subject matter and as Minor so often spoke, allowing ‘spirit’ to be enlivened, exposed, seeing the subject “for what else they are”.

This year I had the opportunity to return to my alma matar to teach the BW Photography One course.  It was here, photographing the same alleyways and processing in the same darkroom with the same enlargers, that I returned to my spiritual visual roots.  I photographed throughout the 4 week course in both traditional BW and Digital and these 3 images are from that series, “ReBoot”. 
 
 
 
 

Philip Lepage says of his work, "25 years ago I woke up in a hospital with no memory of how I had gotten there.

'A Certain Distance' is an ongoing series of images exploring the things I haven’t been able to say to anyone. I repeatedly think that these aren't the images I want to take. That if I was being honest I should be documenting my destroyed living room after having woken up on the floor with no memory at all, empty bottles strewn everywhere, overflowing ashtrays. Life now is often measured in the time between cigarettes. This was not the first time, nor the last, and maybe that is what made it so difficult.

That feeling that I should know better.  It is so strange that even when things are completely broken we still try to hold on to the pieces. All those dangerously sharp shards of glass. I didn't realize that in trying to hold things together, in desperately averting my gaze from what was happening right in front of me, I would make it even worse. That the distance I needed to maintain the fantasy would separate me entirely from the people I love. It is impossible to have a connection to someone who can't connect.

The images in this series are in some ways fragmented. Lives that no longer exist and disjointed memories that can’t be trusted mix with now. The myth we perceive as ourselves. They are not the whole of the story but they are some of the pieces I am trying to make sense of. They exist in that contradictory space between what I know and what I feel. A close friend once told me to be careful; “do you want to know the truth or do you want to be happy?” I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if I had chosen happy. There is no one truth."

Philip LePage (1996 BA Art History) was born in 1969 in Northern Canada but left in 1994 and remained in Europe and Asia for 13 years. He currently lives on Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Photography for Philip LePage is very centered on the contradictions inherent in ideas of home, identity and belonging. He thinks of photography as a journey between two worlds. A middle ground that separates and joins at the same time, a liminal space. That the act of photographing can expose new realms of possibility. Communication is a dialogue. It is not static and allows for misunderstandings, surprising twists, leaps of faith and unforeseen connections.

http://www.philiplepage.com

Trace. I can no longer picture your face. No matter how hard I try only the shadow of you remains in my life.

Vicarious Intimacy. I will give you my heart. No one lives there anymore.
Darkness Visible. Some lights illuminate nothing at all. Some people only have a past.

Susan Spiritus: "Sam Tucibat's photo of "Treehouse" kept me returning to it to examine it more closely and each time I experienced it, I saw more in the image and found it to be another great image for the "Root" submissions.

As the tree continues to grow and expand upwards.... its branches spread out with fragments of homes attached... again, for me,  quite reminiscent of our past.

What was Sam thinking of when 'creating' this photograph?

Sam Tucibat: "I'm very glad that one of my creations earned favorable attention from Susan, and I’m happy to share some thoughts.

Susan's reaction to the piece resonates with me. Additionally, while I was creating the image I was thinking about the
relationship between human-made artifacts like the pieces of buildings in the Treehouse image, and naturally-produced objects like the tree. I was ruminating on the idea that, since humans are part of nature, human-made artifacts emerge from--grow out of--the same nature-based,
primordial creative force that produces trees, giraffes, alluvial fans and all
manner of organic patterns we see in the world around us. It's interesting to me that human-made artifacts can exist either
harmoniously or disharmoniously with the natural environment from which they spring.

That’s it in nutshell.  I look forward to viewing everyone’s work later this month."

Sam Tucibat says of his work, "The natural beauty and rustic architecture along the Mississippi River in northwest Illinois provide the inspiration for my photographic compositions. Small river-communities such as Galena, Savanna, and Thomson serve as gateways to the surrounding old-growth forest, wildlife refuge, unglaciated terrain, backwaters and migratory bird routes. This is where the elements of these images are captured and combined to create a result that is visually unique, but embraces the spirit of the environment in which the original photographs were taken.
 
As a lifelong resident of northwest Illinois I have developed a deep appreciation for the unique beauty of this area’s natural environment. After studying photography as part of my Communication degree at Western Illinois University, capturing images of this area became a hobby, avocation and occupation. I learned photography in the traditional darkroom, but have developed a distinct affinity for digital processes and use them exclusively in my workflow.

I have exhibited and sold my creations in galleries, on the web, and in other venues across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. I am happy to have my work displayed in the collections of many patrons across the country, and I enjoy sharing my experience with students in the Photography and Graphic Design classes I teach at Highland Community College in Freeport, IL.
 
Most of my images are an amalgam of several photographs that are processed and combined in the digital darkroom using Adobe PhotoShop. Individual elements in source images are isolated with selection tools and moved to their own layers in the destination image. Further editing and composition techniques are then employed to refine the overall image. Commonly-used processes included layer mode settings, layer styles, opacity settings and transform commands. Filters are used with extreme reserve.

Frequently, an image culminates as a simple collection of things that have recently entered my field of experience; the elements inhabit the same visual space because they rose into awareness and caught my photographic eye in temporal proximity to one another. Ultimately, the elements of an image I create are usually connected more by synchronicity and serendipity than by logic, reason, or linear thinking."

www.samzart.com

Shelli Weiler was born and raised in Scarsdale, New York. She is currently an undergraduate student at Wesleyan University expecting a Bachelor of Arts by Spring 2019.

Shelli works as a Photography I Undergraduate Teaching Assistant and Darkroom Lab Assistant in the Wesleyan University Center for the Arts.

She has had past experience working as an exhibition assistant at the Brandeis University Kniznick Gallery, a thesis exhibition photographer at Brandeis University Prospect St. Studios, and a museum docent at the Katonah Museum of Art.

She has exhibited her photographic portraiture at the Brandeis University Spingold Theater Complex, and has displayed her drawing portraiture at the Katonah Museum of Art. Shelli hopes to attend graduate school and receive an MFA in photography.

shelliweiler.com

Stella Kalaw says of her work, "Each time I go back to Manila, I’ve become more aware that parts of my past are quickly disappearing. 

A series of floods in the last few years submerged the first floor of my family's home in the Philippines. My parents will soon downsize and move out of this area for safety reasons after living there for over four decades. 

These circumstances prompted an urgency to document pieces of my family’s history focusing on photographing objects that told the story of our everyday life such as the study lamp that sat on our desk throughout our high school and college years, my father’s attaché case that he carried to work, the thick glasses my mother wore when she read at night or the first Kodak Instamatic camera that we brought with us to our weekend outings and family gatherings.

Having visited several museums in the United States and Europe, I was inspired by the artifacts displayed behind glass cases usually against a dark background and lit to emphasize its wear and tear. I used the same treatment for this project with the idea of creating a museum of our family’s everyday objects so that pieces of our shared history remains intact.

www.stellakalaw.com

Steven Duede says of his work, "In much of my work I’m dealing with subjects that are in a transitory state. The Evanescence series features images from composted organic materials. The photographs reflect my continued interest in images that can be beautiful; images that are chaotic, from natural elements and that also evoke something less obviously marvelous.

Flowers and natural things are marvels of beauty and obviously flora is a big subject in my work juxtaposed, alongside elements of the ugly, the degraded. These elements bring to mind thinking about the contrast of the lovely and the less than beautiful.

Thoughts about mortality and vitality can arise from participating in these sorts of themes and that thoughtful imagery abounds for me in my own creative process. I’m witnessing the decomposition of natural compositions. 

In this body of work I’m exploring the mechanics of transition through time, neglect and natural decomposition. I hope to establish images that can be beautiful and chaotic. Subjects that in their own specific way function as part of a transient process."
 
An artist, transitioning from painting and mixed media in the late 2000's to working exclusively in photography Steven Duede brings a sense of painting to his use of the camera.

Originally from the mid-western USA Steven has been living and working in the Boston Massachusetts area since 2001. With a work history in museum operations, academic office administration as well as consulting and design for museums, galleries and arts non profits he carries his attachment to the creative process to all work.

Currently Steven serves as a corporator to the board of directors with the Griffin Museum of Photography. In February 2016 he founded and works as principal of Aspect Initiative, an online gallery showcasing Fine Art Photography in New England.

Having studied painting, printmaking and photography at the Kansas City Art Institute, then becoming an entrepreneur, for a time owning and operating a small music shop & gallery, Steven has devoted much of life to making art and working in creative environments. Work has been exhibited regularly in the Boston area and around the nation.

Steven Duede is represented by 555 Gallery/Boston

Selected Museums and Galleries include the Danforth Museum of Art, MA, Griffin Museum of Photography, MA, DeCordova Museum,MA, Photo Center North West in Seattle WA. Fort Wayne Museum of Art, IN, Brattleboro Art Museum, VT, 555 Gallery/Boston, Sohn Fine Art, MA, Site: Brooklyn NY, Kiernan Gallery VA. Public Art Projects with United Photo Industries (The FENCE) as well as King Co. PCNW (City Panorama) in Seattle.

Permanent collections: Danforth Museum, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Boston Properties.

www.stevenduede.com

Curator Susan Spiritus: Theresa Tarara's photo, "Who I Am" was so simple; however with that being said, while simple, it
really showed us how complex we all are! I loved it!
 
Theresa, was this a photo that already e
out to create it once the submission title was posted? How did you come to make this association between you, your
heritage and the shadow?

Theresa Tarara: "I am so honored to have 'Who I Am' chosen as an Honorable Mention.

I hope I answered Susan's question satisfactorily, filtering down my many thoughts and inspirations to present the connection for Root.

This photo was taken at the same time that I was contemplating entering work for Root.

My life the past three years has revolved around my 101 year old mother living in a nursing home with age related dementia.  I am losing my Mother yet gaining insight into living for myself.

Seeing her descend I felt as if I was going there myself at times. Belongings she no longer needed I hung onto as if to change the course of her life. Alive in my heart are hereditary memories that will never fade and using those to propel me forward is one Root connection. There are many.

After laying down to grieve for a time, my photos dress my wounds so to heal.  My meditative walk one evening past a parking lot tree reminded me of how I look in the mirror readying myself for the day, affirming the inner strength (as the shadow) that never leaves me."

tararaimages.com                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

I cannot part with it. I recall her prowess as a homemaker, how she moved about in the kitchen as I make dinner, do the dishes, clipping loose threads as I go along.
 

My ground glass life.
 
My mom’s nursing home bathroom has a large window with frosted glass. The diffused light, colors, shapes calm my fears about her advancing dementia. A photo of this moment reminds me there is another way of seeing life.