Leslie Norman

Artist Statement / Bio 

"The driving principle in my recent work is to showcase the dynamic relationship between what is beautiful despite the process of decay/disuse (also pointlessness, ancestry/heritage, time+regrets, etc.) Another concept I like to play with is 'parallel universe theory' and space/time in relation to emotion, place, the life/death cycle, and my personal life experience. I am in a pattern of expansion. 

Unable to escape reality, photography is a unique art form: my work tweaks and sometimes exploits that principle by incorporating fringe elements of traditional darkroom printing in compelling ways to form a final image. I would like to point out that although many photographs are manipulated intentionally in some way, everything is done by hand – from loading film to creating finished gelatin silver prints in the darkroom. Many prints are one of a kind.

My work is a bridge into a realm of possibilities beginning to explore the conundrum of existing partially in reality, and slightly somewhere else - closer to something darker, unexpected, and impossible. Surrealism and abstract concepts interest me greatly, as do the passage of time and rituals of everyday life. I invite the viewer to ponder the manifestation and find the significance within.”

-LN

Leslie Norman is an American lens-based visual artist specializing in B/W analog photography.  As an artist, she has a duplicitous mission to document the world as she sees it, and to create at will her version of the truth. Incongruity, contrast, and a tenderness for the past are common themes in her work. Her photographic style has been regarded as romantic and creepy, unconventional, and thought provoking. Although most reliant on 35mm film, Norman also works in medium format and experimental methods. Additionally, she works with alternative processes including multiple exposures, solarization, chemigram/lumen/cyanotype, pinhole, polaroid, etc. Her work has been shown nationally in galleries and published internationally. She is currently working out of her home darkroom and teaching photography throughout Central Ohio. She lives in the city of Mount Vernon with her husband and two daughters.