For my current interest in photography, I use a flatbed scanner to construct fabricated landscapes. I use photographic imagery as the background and layer the scanning surface with transparencies, soil, plant material and water to compose the foreground, middle ground and background in a single image. As an artist, I draw on my affinity for the natural world to create visual metaphors that represent memory and narrative. By using organic specimens from the land in various stages of the life cycle, I am referring to the topography of the psychic terrain as well. Each image reveals a passionate story of the inner life.
The appeal of the flatbed scanner as an expressive photography tool is inspired by many of its inherent characteristics. The scanner creates a shallow depth of space in an image by illuminating the image from beneath the glass. The falling off of light and focus depicts the details and shapes in an image in a compelling and mysterious way, and the illusion of space is deceptive. In some images, subtle shadows are created on the background photograph and oftentimes an object will cast dual shadows as a result of being illuminated and photographed by a moving source. Most importantly, the magnification of minute details by scanning is visually fascinating and symbolically parallels an interest in the ‘examined life’.
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Alison Hahn is Instructor and Head of Digital Photography/Imaging at the Paducah School of Art at West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, Kentucky. Originally from Houston, Texas, Hahn received an MFA in Photography and Intermedia from Texas Woman’s University and BA in Art and Anthropology from the University of North Texas.