In Light of Nature’s Echo
The Photographs of Beth Bischoff
By Robert Blake
There is much to be discovered in the presence of ruins and the forest. We can sense the relationship to time and history, to early dwellings and rituals of spirit. We walk amongst forgotten scenes and peoples whose relationship to time, place and event hold a central role in their societies. The momentary and the eternal are brought together in the experiences of simply being there, walking with and through the marked and unmarked sites that open to our feelings of vastness, of healing, of human presence and absence. These histories are multiple and our poetic responses dwell and thrive in the marvelous silence.
The images of Beth Bischoff belong to such journeying. She has found locales in the Yucatan and the mahogany preserves of Barbados that offer redemptive opportunities for us to inhabit through her photographs. It remains a poetic and spiritual challenge to our contemporary consciousness to find the space and reverie for contemplative paths to understanding. These large scale black and white images yield the evidence of solitude with the resounding qualities of light. It is a quiet, sensual and reflective visual practice.
The landscapes revealed in her images offer a pleasure of seeing. We attune ourselves to the complexity of the overgrowth of trees, roots, and limbs while architectural fragments function like mysteries that we may enter and explore. Following the light our eyes seek and navigate through the images, allowing for an encounter with an inner set of feelings. Bischoff has said that her practice of Reiki has added a dimension of healing energy into her creative work. It is a goal of her art practice to deepen the relationship between what can be seen and what can be felt.
It is a paradox of photography to offer the simultaneous perception of aura and its vulnerability. Great writers of the image from Walter Benjamin to Susan Sontag to Rebecca Solnit have devoted serious attention to how photography has contributed to and altered our relationship to uniqueness and presence. The photograph has been considered a window that opens upon the world, and a mirror that reflects us. The sheer abundance of images contrasts with the notion of singularity and oneness. Yet it seems that as a medium photography hovers between past and present, as a frame where memory is enhanced and embraced. It exceeds its ability to describe with the expression of solidarity with the experience of seeing. This remains a very personal subjective practice of sharing, of declaring each moment as an enduring moment of consciousness. The photograph finds its uniqueness and aura as “saved sight.”
Walking with purpose and without intention can belong to an attentive, meditative art practice. In the place of a declared subject matter, the senses respond to what is there, to that combination of seeing and sensing, long before and after language. It is an existential affirmation of life to say yes to an image made in this way. With careful attention to craft that gives the work the occasion to celebrate its own presence, Beth Bischoff offers us a pathway to her illuminated discoveries, as simple and complex as being there.
Written by Robert Blake
Director of Special Projects, 601Artspace.org
Founding Director of the Creative Practices Program,
the International Center of Photography, New York