Psychological Photography by Lauren Webber

Lauren is from Stoneham, Massachusetts. She worked as a secretary for several years while taking undergraduate courses in Spanish, Psychology and Fine Art.

On her 23^rd birthday, her parents gave her an inexpensive digital camera. Her fascination with languages, people, and art translated perfectly into her photographic practice.

With her life savings, she left the corporate world in order to completely focus on building her photography portfolio. Within a year, she was not only accepted into Rhode Island School of Design, but also given a full tuition scholarship for four years.

Lauren developed her skills as an artist and a writer at RISD. Every day, she would photograph 50-100 pictures with a Canon 5D Mark II. After two years, this personal archive produced over 14,000 images. The archive was translated into eight diptychs, which were presented at Lauren’s first solo show at the Red Eye Gallery in Providence. The work centers around cumulative themes of traumatic memory, domesticity, and identity. She currently lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Artist Statement

One year ago, I realized I have been trying to tell the same story, over and over again, in many different ways. I began to transform photography into a ritual, an active player in my daily routine. Its presence helped me cope with my chronic anxiety.

I photographed fifty photographs a day. An archive began to materialize. In six months, fifty pictures became fourteen thousand. Order and systemization were the main components of this process. The story emerged, with its multiple characters, plots and settings. Yet, I believed it was important to distill this inherent complexity into more refined, tangible object.

To solve the complexity of the archive, I turned to the traditions and format of the Diptych. Its structure provides the simple framework for creating new, personalized realities within a prescribed rule set. I developed a distinct, formal language that serves as a “Rosetta Stone” for my audience to interpret my constructed metaphors and narratives.

The framework of the diptych allows the audience to compare and contrast color, tone, texture and form in relation to their functions within my story. The narrative progressesless in a linear manner and more in a cumulative feeling of loss, escape, and psychological unease. [Official Website]

This time, my story that I have been struggling to tell for years has been told with photographs. I do not know if this is the last version of the story. I do know that it finally feels complete.