Lisa Powers: "Photographic Illusions"

A major solo exhibition of the award-winning New York photographer Lisa Powers' recent and archival works, featuring her homage to WanRong, the last Chinese Empress, her series Postcards From New York, a conceptual work of images and texts as might have been sent by a visitor in New York, as well as many photographic art images culled from her years of working in the commercial and editorial markets shooting with film.

Lisa Powers - Artist’s Statement
I am entirely self-taught in photography (film and digital) and I continue learning.
I think it’s precisely because I’m self-taught that I fearlessly embraced the digital darkroom and added new techniques to my traditional film/darkroom photography.
I mostly shoot people…my background in shooting fashion is always influencing my work.
I envision telling a story without words…only one image. A whole movie in a single frame. But there is a story, either in the past or in a moment about to happen.
My comfort-zone is my studio. I control the lighting and direct the models. My lighting has been strongly influenced by the Hollywood studio photographers of the 1920s and 1930s. I use “hot lights” not strobes and I prefer shooting with film as often as I can.
I entered the ‘digital darkroom’ by scanning my film images with my Imacon Flextight Photo scanner which is the closest to a drum scanner available. It is extraordinary. Every grain in the film is sharp.
Once my film images are scanned into digital, I start experimenting in Photoshop. Since I moved away from commercial photography and shifted to Fine Art, experimenting in Photoshop is totally absorbing and I experiment tirelessly.
I would describe my work as a fusion of information and imagination.

All artworks are Gicée printed on Museum Archival matte paper and are available for sale. Each print comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and can be printed to order in various sizes. All prints are sold unframed.