Circumference

I frequently point to the work of S. Billie Mandle when asked ​“Just what is fine art photography? How is it differentiated from other forms of the medium?” Mandle’s projects offer plenty of visual fascination on the first read, but with a brief dig, there’s even more going on beneath the surface. ​“Look at all of the layers,” I tell my new fine art photography appreciator, ​“the strata of beauty and meaning.”

I’ve enjoyed the conceptual depth of Mandle’s past works, and I find it here again in the series, Circumference. When we see the pictures without much context, the windows and the wallpaper invoke ideas of age, time and continuity, and introspection. It turns out, that’s what the work is about. As we move through the series, we watch the light slowly shift as it traces the walls of the actual space where Emily Dickinson spent her days.

As soon as we know that these are her walls, the images unfurl, and the meaning (which has been there all along) begins to bloom in the mind of the viewer, powered by associations. Whatever is known to us about the poet now informs what we see. As I look at these images and consider the long hours Dickinson spent in the room, fragments of her poetry bounce back at me from the walls. Her metaphors and pictures animate the textures of the wallpaper. Although the human interior life is difficult to illustrate, Mandle helps to make it visible by carefully listening to the voice of each place she photographs. By showing only minimal amounts of information, she opens space for thought and imagination.

- Lisa W

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