AFTER IMAGE

Through a Glass, Darkly

What inspired this photograph, Imaginary Travel #7, was a printed fabric storage bag hanging in a used clothing store. To achieve the sense of distance I strive for in my work—the sense of life viewed indirectly—I added a transparent layer of a photograph of a sheer curtain that was in front of a wall marked by staples and years of wear.

So far, I’ve produced fifteen of these Imaginary Travel photo-collages. The first one came from revisiting a small collage I had put together long ago. I made a computer scan of it and used PhotoShop to alter the colors and toning. My earlier paper collage incorporated the frame from a color slide, and it seemed to be a slide of an imaginary scene. Once I thought about it that way, I started conceiving of other such scenes, and the Imaginary Travel series was born.

—Marilyn Kirsch, MFA76