Birds & NYC —Silhouettes

Cardinal & Kestral, 2000

When living on Peaks Island, Maine, I rented a house with many bird feeders and a great porch for sitting and, observing. Therefore, I got some bird seed. And, as there were no squirrels on Peaks, I delightfully bird watched.

My intrigue with silhouettes was prompted by looking at the bird identification books in bookcase in the house. However, I have had a long interest in silhouettes way before this. Why? Because silhouettes preceded the invention of photography. They were a way for the not extremely wealthy person to have an image made of themselves. I was also commissioned to write a feature article & photograph a woman in Maine who still cut silhouettes, which increased my interest and intrigue.

Therefore, out on Peaks with birds plentiful, I cut a few bird silhouettes of my own.

Cardinal & Kestrel (top) and Kingfisher & Meadowlark (bottom)

Cupboard Finds, 2001 archival pigment prints each: 22 1/2” x 30”. Raiding the kitchen cabinets & placing the objects on small cyanotype printing paper, which I then scanned , enlarged & printed digitally.

Birds/ Women

This series consists of images of women from magazines combined with my cut silhouettes. The magazine imagery was scanned & then placed within my hand cut silhouettes of the 4 birds.

These preceded and informed my Projections series of photographs made in the rooms of my home.

NYC Silhouette series, 2010. Cut paper & archival pigment prints from my 4x5 inch pinhole paper negatives. We all recognize — if a house, a car, a chair, or a piece of clothing is old or not.

We know this by its shape. Perhaps not the exact year, unless it’s our area of expertise. But, shapes change just like everything else. Think about chairs and/or cars— two pretty obvious examples. Or, clothing, as I did here, paired with a building from the same time period . I hand cut the silhouette of a women’s dress shape from the corresponding time period of a landmark NYC architectural building or site.

top: Brooklyn Bridge 1869 & Flatiron 1902

bottom: NYC Stock Exchange 1903 & Rockefeller Center, 1933