ART – Breathing In by Eden Prairie Ward (Photography)

By Audrey Deng

I am fascinated by the way the presence of light can suggest a complex and mysterious interior realm by merely touching the surfaces of people and things. The photographic still seems to stop time or slow time down, like holding one’s breath. My subjects are the familiar, the domestic: myself, my friends, my family at home, in rooms, in cars. These are private lives, private places. The intention of this work is to create photographic portraits that resemble paintings, capturing private moments from a life and intimate scenes of family, home, domestic settings.

With Breathing In, I trace my perception of the duality of human emotion and thought and physical landscapes. I try to capture a subjective feeling tone reflected in the ordinary, and explore the interplay of the individual and the stuff of the world. For instance, the portrait of a woman sitting in an attic, looking out a window, is in fact a self-portrait in which I aimed to capture my fascination between the deteriorating domestic scene and the inner life of my subject, myself.

In addition to my still photographs I have used video to record short mundane events, which I call “moving stills.” I am interested in conveying a heightened sense of awareness through observance of everyday life.

Eden Prairie Ward is a 2014 graduate of Bard College with a B.A. in Photography. Her passion for photography, film, and the visual arts propels the work. Breathing In, her Bard senior thesis project in photography and video, culminated in her own gallery show and published book, for which she designed, produced, and mounted all content and framed images for the exhibition.

Her freelance work experience includes directing, shooting, and editing content. She was commissioned to take portraits of Contemporaneous, a Bard Music Ensemble, Head shot Portraits of Bard Students for Bard Works, Professional Development Program, as well as several portraits for peers, student concerts, and other promotional material for campus events.

Eden is based in rural upstate New York, pursuing freelance assignments specializing in baby and children portraiture and wedding and event photography. Eden’s prints and artwork are available on Etsy and her webpage.