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Incident No.14: Stephanie Diamond
Artist Statement
As an obsessive image-maker I began
photographing as an artist at the age of 13, and since then, I have documented my -- and everyone who comes in contact with
me -- life. I use a small and compact 35 mm film camera, and all of my photos are amassed in an archive of over 100,000 of
my images.
My passion to present and discuss photography across many vistas, as well as my critical insight, comes from
my desire to connect communities and people. My process is not simply to take photographs but to use photography as a vehicle
for understanding and knowing. With my camera I capture moments that are often overlooked or fleeting. My personal art training
has taught me another way to give words to the long standing visual language of photography, and to transform it. Traditionally,
the snapshot is a way to record fleeting moments and recall memories. The snapshot is also a symbol that can replace, store,
release, ignite, erase, capture, prove, discover, and uncover memories. Photography and photographs bridge gaps and provide
access to places and people that would otherwise never converge or be seen. Almost anyone can own or use a camera, and the
average person has widespread access to photography, whether it is simply walking outside on the street and looking at a billboard,
or possessing a driver’s license.
I do not suppose any photograph is a “bad” photograph, and I believe
there is no such thing as “low” or “high” photography. I use photographs to help me articulate that
the whole universe is connected. For me, photographs render what I see in the world into objects. This translation aids in
my understanding that everything is energy, and capturing something or someone with a photo is making an object out of that
energy. It is my desire that the photo as an object holds this idea as well, and with this object we are
capable to experience
the subject matter in real time, in the now. It is my wish that through these visual representations one begins to realize
and feel that there is really no separation between the subject in the photo, the object they are holding, and themselves.
Photo for me, is proof that we are all connected as one.
Bio
Stephanie Diamond has exhibited her work nationally and internationally,
and has had solo exhibitions at Incident Report (Hudson, New York) in 2008, Cuchifritos Gallery (New York) in 2005, Para-Site
Gallery (Beacon, New York) also in 2005, and at Galeria Sin Titulo (San Juan, Puerto Rico) in 2004. Her work has been included
in group exhibitions at the Queens Museum of Art (Queens, New York), P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center (Long Island City, New
York), The Sculpture Center (Long Island City, New York), The Studio
Museum in Harlem (New York), The New York Historical
Society (New York), The Katonah Museum of Art (Katonah, New York), The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, (Annandale-on-Hudson,
New York), The Newark Arts Council (New Jersey), The Light Factory, (Charlotte, North Carolina), La Fabrica del Vapore/Open
Space, (Milan, Italy), Contemporary Art Center (Vilnius, Lithuania), Andrew Kreps Gallery (New York), Ramis Barquet Gallery
(New York), Art In General (New York), Artists Space (New York), Gallery 400 (Chicago), Kevin Bruk Gallery (Miami, Florida),
Reg Vardy Gallery, (Sunderland, England) and Jan Mot Galerie, (Belgium). She was an artist in residence at LMCC Swing Space,
Art Omi, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, and M and M Projects in San Juan Puerto
Rico. She is the recipient of a Puffin Foundation Grant (2002), Athena Foundation Grant (2003), and a nominee for The Louis
Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2003). She received her B.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design (1997) and her M.A. from
New York University (2004).
Additional Installation Images
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