Christine Shank

By now, you may know that I like to look at the minute details. Christine Shank is a photographer whose work keeps coming back to me, pushing me to consider, though, oddly, I've rarely done so, until now. Her photographs are honest and surreal: implausibly eloquent. Every image reminds me of a miniature, however I'm just not sure how they could be. Her work is brilliant.

All praise aside, I'm take from Shank's Interior series of photographs how to formulaically make a large body of alike images interesting even after producing the images for months. This is a problem I often run into, and until recently, I have become sidetracked with long running projects- trying to reinterpret or totally run a clean slate underneath projects that just might not actually be finished.

Technically, Shank's images have a strong presence of, as I call it, creeping light; or little inflows of sunlight from windows and passageways. Creeping light really makes the allure of these images so much stronger. They do not look like faked scenes.

Conceptually, her Interior series reflects on loss, through neurosis, collectivism, or simple tragedy. These images have a profound emptiness and longing quality which I greatly admire. I wish I could step back from the works a little bit, but I become highly sensitized to them.

1035 unforgettable little mistakes

Against our better judgement, we simply watched 

The expectation continued to remain

Their relationship was reduced to habits 

They choose to smile and pretend nothing had changed 

You promised to listen

All images 24" x 30", 2006
All Images courtesy of the Artist
http://www.christineshank.com/index.html
Christine also has a book on display at Booksmart Studios in Rochester
She also had a show up in Harnett Gallery at the University of Rochester in 2006