Teresa Munisteri: Strangers to Darkness

Artist Statement

“But shadows spread, and deepened, and stayed. After thousands of years we’re still strangers to darkness, fearful aliens in an enemy camp with our arms crossed over our chests. I stirred.”

Annie Dillard – Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

My recent series “Strangers to Darkness” traverses a dormant world, blanketed in shadows and illuminated by street lamps and constellations. Through the lens, I explore the night during that quiet hour when it seems as though the rest of the world is in slumber and the secret pleasures of looking are all yours. Like Dillard, I find myself watching the day turn to night with mixed feelings of fear, mystery, and longing. There is hope in every distant light and the coming dawn. My figure haunts the picture frame–watching and waiting. Darkness is where evil lurks, creatures hunt, secrets take shape, and loneliness is most acute. Through this series of images, I seek to confront nightmares, fantasies, and my own personal fear of isolation. Using analog photography and long shutter speeds, the very act of exposing the negative becomes an act of looking and being seen.

ON VIEW
June 6–July 27, 2014