Daughter of a wandering race :
composite photograph printed on archival paper :
6″h x 10″w :
1/20
by Nina Hauser
Q: You’ve been to India 3 times now? What is it that keeps taking you back for your art?
A. I’ve been searching to find an answer for myself for a long time and now your question pushes me to come up with it……..and here is my reply which will continue to evolve………I find a depth of experience that is unparalleled; in the chaos of the cities, in the quiet of the rural landscapes, the inexplicable happens…….I find myself small, present, self aware………and while witnessing the suffering and poverty as well as the joyful responses to life that are the essence of this mystical land and her people, I discover the same responses awakening in myself. How to be present amidst suffering without being overwhelmed by it, my work is a way to draw back when I feel like I’m at the edge and feel more stabilized and able to respond with buoyancy.
Expressing the inexpressible :
composite photograph printed on archival paper :
7″h x 10″w :
1/20 :
by Nina Hauser
Q. Your photos in this body of work are making the move into a dream-realm. Is it India that takes your imagination there or is there something else that has inspired this move in your image-making?
A. It has been a slowly evolving process, this movement of my work into your aptly descriptive term , ” dream realm”. Although , looking back I can see that it actually began with my first forays into a dark room and I could see the possibilities of creation….. I could create a world as I saw it, felt it,
or imagined it….. and working solely in black and white was in a sense creating a dream world for me. From the start….. my vision evolved in a radical way when my path led me down the road into the digital world and the incorporation of
color into my work….followed by my mastering Photoshop …..and then five years ago, my IPhone and all those delicious Apps which gave me the tools to accomplish even more uber reality.
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It was on my second and third trips to India with a small group of like-minded artists where I discovered and mastered the tools that could help me accomplish a final leap into my fascinating realm of dreams and here I thank my muses, Karen Divine and Laurie Amerson who were so patient , inspiring and the most wonderful of teachers…… my own little Buddahs.
Joyful maybes :
composite photograph printed on archival paper :
6.5″h x 10″w :
1/20 :
by Nina Hauser
Q. There is some narrative happening in these pieces. There’s always been some narrative in your work….your photos are not simple still lifes, portraits or landscapes. Sometimes there’s a feeling of having come upon a scene just a minute before or after an event, and sometimes there’s a deep feeling of serenity. Will you speak a bit to that?
A. For sure, there were narratives going on in my mind with this project…….That was one of the best parts…..They all have stories……….I especially loved the little lady (Image titled “Reality transformed”) we found in Kochi who was working over a small, hot fire with her husband making starch out of some plant material in a field of weeds to sell to the laundry next door. It was especially steamy and hot in southern India and she was sweating over the fire but she was dressed in a lovely sari, with jewelry and remained smiling and hospitable while showing us how she made the starch and then cooled the heavy iron pot in a stream nearby…….working with her image, I decided she needed a break to cool off and I “relocated” her into a Mughal like garden aside a lake with birds, flowers and trees, some from my own imagery and the rest from different paintings. The birds are loving her and making her happy.
Imagining friendship :
composite photograph printed on archival paper :
9.7″h x 9.3″w :
1/20
by Nina Hauser
Q. The borders in the images are new in this body of work. The illuminated feel of them really give a sense of preciousness to the pieces overall. What made you think to use them as a design element in these pieces?
A. I have always loved Mughal miniatures and illuminated manuscripts. On my second trip to India, I stayed in a beautiful hotel that had once been a hunting lodge for a maharaja and it was located in a very small village in Rajasthan. On the door to my room was a framed vintage photograph of the maharaja himself and covering many of the walls were other images of visiting dignitaries, royalty, etc. One day, I photographed a few of these images and substituted portraits I had taken of the people in the town, thinking that perhaps their ancestors had built this magnificent edifice in the first place and should be represented as well. These remained on my iPad, not on the actual walls but that’s when I got the idea to move untouchables, animals, and all my subjects into Mughal type miniatures using my own photographed landscapes or actual ones I found in library books or through research on the internet. My subjects are far from those in the vivid scenes of Hindu epics, mystical legends and courtly life usually depicted in this type of art. But my subjects are just as deserving of lush surroundings, and my people and animals just as noble and valuable.
Q. Please speak about the processes you put your images through from start to finish.
A. Putting it simply, these images are composites of many images I’ve taken over three years with different iPhones in different places. The rest of the process depends on my mood………I may start with an individual who’s gotten my attention for one reason or another, transferred onto my iPad because they’re easier for me to see and work with, or it could be with a landscape or it could be some structure that’s interesting architecturally……….When asked about which apps I used, I often have no idea because I just go into some zone and end up having used three or four apps …….An image could be completed in a day, a week, or one that I keep returning to over a long period of time ……
Rewriting a fable :
composite photograph printed on archival paper :
10″h x 6.5″w :
1/20 :
by Nina Hauser
Q. So, you’ve been using the iPhone to create your work for some time now. How do you think your approach to photography has changed from when you used solely an SLR to now?
A. I’m going to make this answer very short…..I’ve always loved taking pictures…….but now, i’m having even more fun with it and it’s more immediate. It’s a way of life. I can’t imagine not doing it. It’s what feeds my soul. That was all true with my SLR and maybe that didn’t really answer your question but that’s my answer!
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