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Connie Imboden
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Nationality
American
Books
Beauty of Darkness
Education
University of Delaware
Role
Photographer
Name
Connie Imboden
Connie imboden out of darkness photography
Connie Imboden is an American photographer best known for her work photographing the nude in reflections in water and mirrors. Her photographs are represented in many permanent collections including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Bibliothèque Nationales in Paris, France, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany as well as many other public and private collections throughout Europe and the Americas.
Throughout the years, Imboden has shown her work in an extensive range of group and solo shows at galleries and museums throughout the United States, South America, Europe and China.
Connie Imboden’s first book, entitled “Out of Darkness” with essays by Charles– Henri Favrod and A.D. Coleman, won the Silver Medal in Switzerland’s “Schonste Bucher Aus Aller Welt (Most Beautiful Book in the World)” Award in 1993.
Following the success of “Out of Darkness”, Imboden released two monographs in 1999. The first, “Beauty of Darkness”, features 80 images of her work produced between 1986 and 1998. It also featured introductions by A.D. Coleman and Arthur Ollman. The second book, “The Raw Seduction of Flesh”, features work produced in 1998 and an introduction by Mitchell Snow.
Her most recent monograph, “Reflections; 25 Years of Photography”, was published in 2009 by Insight Editions with essays by Arthur Ollman, Julian Cox and John Wood.
Throughout the years, Imboden has continued to teach and inspire colleagues and students alike in her quest to push the photographic medium to its highest level. She currently teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where her experience as a photographer began. Connie has also served as an instructor at The Maine Photographic Workshops, The International Center for Photography in New York City, the Center for Photography in Woodstock, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in France, and The Sante Fe Photographic Workshops.
Connie imboden
Early Work
Imboden was introduced to photography during the summer following her junior year in high school when she enrolled in a Basic Photography course at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Having previously shown no interest in art, she was inspired by the penetrating work of Diane Arbus and the potential for expression through photography. It quickly became a passionate pursuit that would last a lifetime.
Experimenting with negatives by cutting, scratching, and melting them, Imboden’s early images are introspective self-portraits that show early signs of the psychological qualities that would eventually become characteristic of her work. Many of these photographs of the angsty and introspective 16-year-old involve the representation of masks, another recurring theme through Imboden’s career.
Working with Water
Imboden’s work with water began in 1983 when, while out photographing, she became intrigued by specular bursts of sunlight bouncing off puddles after a heavy rain. She continued to explore the reflective properties of water until one day a friend volunteered to model nude in a stream Imboden had been photographing in. The human form, distorted, reflected, and transformed as it is submerged in water, would eventually become the inspiration for her life’s work.
Imboden would continually discover new ways to explore her subject matter. Her early images incorporate the moving water of streams or the unavoidable reflection of trees, graphic elements that further transform the figure in ways that heighten the psychological aspect of the work. Later, in images such as Dead Silences I & II, Imboden photographed above the surface of a black lined kiddie pool, which improved the visibility of the reflection as well as the magnification and refraction of the water. The images working with this method illustrate elongated forms, fluid and often tranquil due to the stillness of the water.
Imboden’s work with the human form and water incorporate three distinct layers; the body above the surface of the water, its reflection, and the body submerged. When she eventually began photographing underwater, she would also use the meniscus of the water to further distort and transform the body. Her images throughout the years of 1997-2000 feature bizarre, organic forms - familiar in their flesh but alien in their reconstructed form. In an interview, Imboden is quoted as saying “… there is nothing more repulsive nor more attractive to us than flesh. This confrontation with flesh in an unidentified form makes us uncomfortable. We don’t know what we are looking at, but we know it is human.”
Working with Mirrors
Photographing models in water was not an option during the cold winter months for Imboden. In order to continue working with reflections and the human form through the year, she began working with mirrors in 1989. The problem, however, was that the mirrors only provided one reflective layer, instead of the three she had grown accustomed to working with that had the potential to distort and transform the figure. Her early attempts at disrupting the clean, crisp reflections involved smearing oil on the mirror’s surface, as seen in Untitled #2455.
Seeking to alter the surface even further, Imboden began scratching the silver backing off of the mirrors she was working with, making them transparent in some places while still reflective in others. Putting a model behind the mirror made them visible in the areas where the mirror was transparent, while a model in front can be seen in the parts that are still reflective. Through the relationship of the models in front of and behind the mirror, as well as her camera angle, she discovered a similar effect to the refractive properties of the water. In the only self-portrait she produced since the 1970s, Self Portrait 1990, Imboden imperfectly lines up her profile in front of the mirror with a models face behind the mirror, creating a distorted portrait by combining two different views into one, reminiscent of the quality of space in a Cubist painting.
The smearing and scraping of the mirrors soon lead to generating a marred, scratched texture on their surface. Resembling the “hatching” technique in medieval printmaking, many of Imboden’s images that illustrate this texture have a dark, mythological quality to them, as in Untitled #3573. By incorporating this texture with the model showing through from behind the mirror and the one reflected in front, Imboden was once again working with three distinct layers.
1986–1988
Master of Fine Arts, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
1977–1978
Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, Towson State University, Baltimore, MD
1971–1973
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2002–present
Santa Fe Workshops, Santa Fe, NM
1996–present
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1995–present
School for Photographic Studies in Prague, Czech Republic
1993–present
Maine Photographic Workshops, Rockport, ME
1997
International Center For Photography, NY, NY
1995
Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY
1994
Recontres Internationales de la Photographie Workshop, Arles, France
Boards and affiliations
1996–present William G Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, Chair Term 2001-2003
2001–present Board of Trustees, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD
2001–present Villa Julie College Art Gallery Advisory Board, Baltimore, MD
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC
The Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland
Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela
The National Museum of American Art, Washington DC
Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden, published by Insight Editions. Preface by Julian Cox, Forward by John Wood, Introduction by Arthur
Ollman
2007
Connie Imboden, La Oscuridad Divina Catalogue Museo Metropolitano
2006
Connie Imboden: Re-Fromation, catalogue
2003
Imboden Photographs Catalogue
2001
Piercing Illusions, Published by Foto Books Press, San Francisco & New York, text by John Wood, Interview by John Weiss
1999
Beauty of Darkness, Monograph published by Custom and Limited Editions Text by Arthur Ollman, and A.D.Coleman
Raw Seduction of Flesh Monograph published by Silver Arts, London England Text by Mitchell Snow
1998
Inter U terus Catalogue, Published By Gomez Gallery
1996
"Connie Imboden" Catalog for Museo Alejandro Otero
1993
Connie Imboden Conversation by Jean–Claude Lemagny, Text by Robert Pujade, Published by GalerieMunicipale du Chateau d'Eau, Toulouse, France.
1992
Out of Darkness by Connie Imboden. Text by AD Coleman and Charles Henri Favrod Edited and published by Esther Woerdehoff, Zurich and Paris. Printed in Switzerland.
2010
Georgia Review, “Danse Macabre” Front and back cover and inside portfolio
2008
Focus Magazine, “Fire and Water” 1/8/08
RS Magazine “Connie Imboden” June 2008
2007
Foto Mundo, “La Oscuradad Divina” June 2007 2006 – Baltimore Sun, Wednesday April 12, Arts & Society 2005 – Inked Magazine, cover, Spring Premiere Issue
2003
Baltimore Sun, Sunday, November 2, Arts & Society
Baltimore City Paper, December 3, 2003 " Art"
Towson Times, December 3, 2003, Life Times
2002
Ag, Volume 29 November 2002, "Running Deeper: The Metamorphes of Connie Imboden," A.D. Coleman
Photovision: Art & Technique
Foto & Video February 2002
2001
Zoom, July 2001 "Connie Imboden", David Crosby
PHOTOgraphic, July 2001"Connie Imboden: Troubled Waters", Jay Jorgensen
2000
B&W Magazine, June 2000 "Connie Imboden Body Transformer" Shawn O'Sullivan, Issue 7
Photographie, June 2000 "Connie Imboden" PortfolioPhotoPlus, June 2000 "THE BODY, Distortions and Realities" Ghislaine De La Villeguerin
1999
Baltimore Magazine, Sept 1999, "Connie Imboden"
Baltimore Sunday Sun, September 12, Arts and Society "Body Language" Glenn McNatt
Photo Metro, Vol17 Issue 155 "Connie Imboden"
1998
The Photo Review, Fall 1998, Vol 21 #4, "Connie Imboden" by Susan Ciccotti
Master Breasts, Aperture Publishing, New York, NY
1997
Leg, Donna Karan Inc, General Publishing Group
1995
Women Artists, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Susan Fisher Sterling
Zoom Magazine, Milan, Italy
Photodom Magazine January "Connie Imboden: Out Of Darkness", Taiwan
1994
Valokuva Finnish Photography, November, "Connie Imboden Vesi Ja Peili" Helsinki Finland
Tradition and the Unpredictable, Catalog for the show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX