VERVE Gallery of Photography
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Why do I like puzzles? The simple answer is "Puzzles make you think." The more complex answer devolves about what and how puzzles make you think. Puzzles make you examine the world and ask what it is you are really seeing. What are your assumptions and why? What are you ignoring? What lies beneath the surface? Are the issues physiological, that is, built into my brain, or cultural, taught to me by society in which I grew up?

Different instantiations of the same subject, be it a physical object, an environment, a location can all be perceived differently by different individuals, or even by the same individual at different times as the focus of their attention changes. People tend to see what they expect to see in a given situation. If an unexpected form/aspect of a subject is encountered, the reaction of the viewer may be to fail to see what is literally before his eyes.

In order to deal with daily life, people learn many modes of behavior that become automatic because they deal with the same situations repeatedly. They learn to deal with ordinary encounters in a routine manner, accepting curious superpositions, displacements and unusual transitions without questions. Complex situations, such as puzzles, make you look at the world in a different way. They require that you halt all preprogrammed behavior and actually look deeply into something. You can then begin to analyze what you are seeing.

My images present you with constructions that may, upon first glance, appear to be ordinary photographs but which then require you to examine the image more closely to find what is actually being shown to you. Some images are about relationships between different states of the same physical object, such as stone as found in nature and the same stone used as a building material. Others examine the place of man made structures in the natural world. Still others place structures that are purely of the mind into the world in which people find themselves confined.

I will continue to construct images that explore the meaning of reality for each of us by interweaving multiple aspects/views in such a way as to cause viewers to question their preconceptions. I intend to extend my imagery to include perceptions of personal identity. I hope an exhibit of my images will make you question the way you view the world.

- Karen M. Strom



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