Alyson Belcher MFA

<< >>

For the past ten years, Alyson Belcher has been exploring the relationship between stillness and movement by using a pinhole camera to photograph the human figure.  Her photographs include an ongoing series of self-portraits as well as collaborations with dancers and movement artists. Alyson has been teaching at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco since 2000.

 Artist’s statement:

My work combines pinhole photography with improvisational performance, and stems from the idea that everything we experience is stored somewhere in our bodies.  Movement is one way to access and give visual form to what lies beneath the surface of the skin.  The making of these photographs is an exploration of the nature of each movement and where it originates internally.

Because of the unpredictable nature of pinhole photography, there is no way to really know how an image will turn out. I don’t usually begin with a clearly defined idea. The images often reveal stories that may or may not have been known to me previously. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t my stories.  Often the body remembers what the mind has forgotten.

www.alysonbelcher.com