For me, the sense of romance that accompanies photography has yet to be lost. Perhaps it’s because I started taking pictures at a young age; my entry into photography was purely about capturing simple scenes and moments happening around me. It makes me think of the line from Lost in Translation, “I tried taking pictures, but they were so mediocre. I guess every girl goes through a photography phase. You know, horses… taking pictures of your feet.”
When I see photography that’s quiet and uncomplicated, pictures that look like they were made with a disposable camera just for the purpose of documenting those little things in the world that feel like magic, I feel so nostalgic. And that’s how I feel looking at Roslyn Julia’s series Exist. The photos, taken over the span of nearly a decade, depict animals, nature, changes in season and place. She writes, “The focus of this work… can be seen as a metaphor depicting the nature of a human soul.”
From the artist’s statement: Nature holds the power to reflect messages or moods back to the viewer, to touch the part of one’s being which it mirrors. Photography holds the power to seize in an instant an energy that is timeless and omnipresent. These images show an invisible line between my own existence and the subjects; two energy fields meeting to become one, even if only for that moment. This is a phenomenon only a camera can make possible. The images turn present to past with the click of a shutter; yet allow the past to live on in the present.
Through the frame of a still image, the capture of pure energy and emotion can become a lasting visual and tangible experience. “Exist” shares seemingly ordinary, daily moments in order to reveal their extraordinary nature. By taking the time to pause an ever moving and changing existence, what is revealed is the eternal, fleeting nature and spirit found in a single moment.
From “Exist”
Visit artist's site: roslynjulia.com
Posted March 13th, 2019
