Patricia Z. Smith
Welcome to the website for my photo books PHOTOSCAPES AND THE EGG and, launched a year earlier in 2021, COMPLEMENTS: eloquence of small objects!
My work has the overarching intent to bring images and words—poetic words—together in ways that might give glimpses of what is beyond images and words. When I was four years old, I ardently asked the Great Unnamable to reveal Itself, to write Its name—G O D presumably—on a paper next to my bed as I slept.
It did not, but my quest remained. Whatever created us—and also implores us and searches for us—is not visible by the usual means but can be felt—subtly or as a tsunami—through sensations invoked by images, words, music, touch, love certainly, fear, wonder. Images and words are the stage players for the Grand Mystery beyond all we assume is real.
A bit too esoteric? Simply put, time is an illusion and what we see are waves stimulating and weaving patterns.
Extending our awareness in a linear way of this step, that step, and the next step, all provable of course, all within boundaries, is limited. Don’t think in lines and sequences, think in circles, swirls, waves, back loops, dance, Pi.
As individuals and tribes, we must allow ourselves to improvise. As Stephen Nachmanovitch wrote in the foreword to PHOTOSCAPES, letting go of assumptions gains us access to creation and creativity, and the unnamable uncapturable truth beyond the obvious. It gives us freedom to explore expansively and create without self-imposed limits of what is “right, normal, and proper.”
I “disturb” images out of the expected. I manipulate photographs into streams of color, have eggs represent creation in every form, and add words, poems perhaps, that take the viewer further, according to her or his desires, into the Unnamable.
The truth is the images visit themselves upon me. They appear before me at any moment, in dreams, upon waking. They have things to say and guide me into realms of wonder, humor, beauty, more questions, intangible answers, dangers, mysticism surely. It seems The Unnamable beyond space and time wants to be known, if only for a little bit, which is perhaps as much of wonder as we can bear.
So, loosen the anchor of expectations from your mind and see whatever it is for you to see in PHOTOSCAPES AND THE EGG and in COMPLEMENTS: eloquence of small objects.
All photos were taken with iphones 11 or 13 Pro.
Pictures of all objects in the photos, except for a few iconic art objects, were taken by PZS.
PRINTS ARE AVAILABLE NOW!
Select and order your favorite print(s) from the photographs in PHOTOSCAPES. Prints are limited to editions of 15 each, sized 16” x 20” and printed with archival pigment on Hahnemühle paper by a master printer. Signed by Patricia Z. Smith.