The Rest Between Two Notes: Selected Works by Fran Forman

Description

By integrating her contemporary photography with historical periods and various settings from around the world, Forman creates a world of illusion; upon closer inspection, what appears ordinary suggests an underlying tension and an aura of mystery. Expressed in the diffused colors of twilight and chiaroscruro, her images blur the boundaries between photography, late Renaissance painting, and film noir. Forman's photo-paintings explore those liminal and in-between moments - of coming and leaving, innocence and confidence, shadow and light, night and day, absence and connection, loss and longing, and not quite the past and not yet the future. Portals, both real and metaphorical, frequent her layered, complex and often dark dreamlike images. Her work is recognized for imbuing each image with strong, harmonious compositions and for her explosive use of color, light and shadow. As a cinematographer writes a narrative with movement and sound, Forman writes with still images, where the images have no power except through their position and relationship. It is these relationships that elicit emotions of desire, vulnerability, and a desperate longing for connection. Between Two Notes will feature over 100 images, insterspersed with comments from a diverse group of admirers.

Fran Forman's photo-paintings are included in the permanent collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and many other public collections. After receiving a BA in sociology and an MSW, Fran Forman worked for several years with underserved populations in urban areas. Returning to her love of art, she received an MFA in 1977, working as a graphic designer and photo-montagist. Fran is often asked to juror and curate photo exhibitions and to teach advanced photo-montage classes. Forman is an Affiliate Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and is represented by galleries in Massachusetts, Dallas, LA, and San Miguel, Mexico. Her work frequently appears in publications and as book cover art, and her list of national and international awards is extensive. She lives in the New England area. More of her work can be seen at www.franforman.com

"The American photographer displays haunting and whimsical photo-paintings rich in colour and metaphor. . . . Forman's photomontages are distinctly cinematic. . . . Her book invites readers to weave narratives across images and chapters. Her magical realist collages are heavy with a sense of mystery: we rarely know what a model is looking at, what unites specific objects, what something is and why it is out of focus. . . . Her use of animals, costumes, weather, and magic surprise and delight; nothing is obvious or expected."-- "British Journal of Photography" "A tour de force monograph. . . . Her substantial new book moves the work into a realm of richly colored capacious photo-paintings that explore space in a new way, leaving room for liminal and psychological moments and for the imagination to create stories of what might be. The compositions are dreamlike, filled with shadow and light and color, with figures that appear as if in dreams, moving through space with a sense of mystery. Fran finds inspiration in Caravaggio's light intensive portraits, Edward Hopper's use of light and shadow, the surrealism of Duane Michaels, the constructed tableaux of Gregory Crewdson, and cinematographers who employ light and shadow to increase tension, such as Michael Haneke, Errol Morris, and Dario Argento."-- "LENSCRATCH" "The additive nature of conjuring a reality from various visual sources, and masterfully blending them into works of art is dreamlike and evocative. Her intuitive visual stories are arresting. The Rest Between Two Notes lends itself well to the lyrical and musical metaphor that there is just as much importance to the silence as there is to the notes played or sung. Or in Forman's case, the color or hue added to a visual void."-- "F-Stop Magazine"