Stephanie Guillen
About the Artist
Stephanie Guillen discovered her love for creative expression through painting as a child. She has since nurtured that love into a life-long passion. Today, she is a visual artist who realizes her creativity mainly through photographic works, which she also processes into mixed media collages on canvas, wood, or paper.
Her images are complex and characterized by a subtle eeriness, dreaminess, and sentimentality.
Some of her work has been shown in galleries, art festivals, and local events in and around Jersey City, the greater New York area and throughout the US as well as in London, Zurich, Stockholm and Budapest. She has been featured in the Artist Portfolio Magazine as well as in the Photographer’s Forum’s book Best of Photography 2013 and 2015.
Artist Statement
Artist Statement – “Nostalgic Negatives”
“Nostalgia, a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.”
– Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997
“Negative, photographic image that reproduces the bright portions of the photographed subject as dark and the dark part as light areas.”
– Britannica
The core of this collage series are strips of family photo negatives from the late 1940’s and 1950’s. These strips are precious keepsakes from my grandparents’ house.
I moved to the US from my homeland Switzerland in October 2019 and a few months later, the pandemic hit and the borders closed. I haven’t seen my family over in 2 years.
Driven by nostalgia, I processed my longing and melancholia in this collage series by bringing old pictures back to life.
I didn’t reverse the negatives because I want it to reflect the vast distance between me and my family and to illustrate the felt unreality.
What are your “Treasured moments” & how do you connect it to your work?
The core of this collage series are strips of family photo negatives from the late 1940’s and 1950’s. These strips are precious keepsakes from my grandparents’ house, reflecting treasured moments in our family.
Driven by nostalgia, I processed my longing and melancholia in this collage series by bringing old pictures back to life and to revive those treasured moments.
Comments 16