Lisa M. Robinson: Snowbound

Snowbound delivers what one hopes to see (but is harder to find these days) in an emerging photographer–knowledge of her medium, a rich and varied inner life, fearlessness in vision, and an in-depth study of her chosen subject. –Carol McCusker

Photographs with the tranquility one might feel after a fresh snowfall.

Five winters long, the young American photographer Lisa M. Robinson took pictures in the snow. Snowbound shows landscapes in which everyday objects–alienated and sunken in snow– civilize the natural surroundings. Traces of human existence set accents in the white landscape, delimiting it and often popping up in an amusing or incongruous way. A lonely hammock, a trampoline, and a swimming pool are echoes of the summer past and of personal memories. But Robinson is not interested in showing the obvious; instead, she makes use of the many aggregate states of water–ice, snow, fog, and water–as metaphors for life and transience.

Lisa M. Robinson lives and works in New York. She was artist in residence at Light Work in Syracuse, New York; Curator’s Choice at the Houston Center of Photography Membership Exhibition; and among the top fifty photographers chosen by Critical Mass (Photolucida). Recently she received the L.C. Tiffany Grant for emerging artists. Snowbound will be exhibited at several institutions in the United States and Europe, and the book has been named Book of the Year 2008 by Light Work.

Mark Strand, born in 1934, is a poet, essayist, and translator. He received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize.