REFLECTION UNKNOWN | Fred Zafran | Oct 10 - Nov 19, 2023

Introduction

Fred Zafran has long been interested in photography as a distinctive means of storytelling. His work examines the artistic possibilities of photographs that combine the poetic with a representational view of the world. The resulting photo essays which Zafran calls “poetic narrative,” are post documentary in that the stories are open ended, subjective, rich in symbolism and metaphor, and encourage consideration and interpretation by the viewer.

The exhibition REFLECTION UNKOWN is a narrative of doubt and inquiry. It is an allegorical body of work, a visual arc of questions, every moment a place of astonishment, unending change, and uncertain meaning. The images in the exhibition are expressive, each standing alone as a small fiction. However, the exhibition overall is meant to be “read” in sequence, to reveal a coherence and contextualization between the photographs, and a story pointing beyond the depicted images themselves.

Artist Statement

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... Do not seek answers which cannot be given… Live the questions, and perhaps you will live along some distant day into the answer.” — Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“All things fundamental to the human spirit can only be experienced, not expressed. The rest is always and everywhere silence.” — Aldous Huxley, Music at Night

The photographer pursues a photograph to hold something known, but finds an image torn from appearances, and a reflection unknown.

The camera I carry is a lantern that shines in two directions—as it gazes outward, it illuminates inward. Photographs become self-portraits inquiring of the photographer “what is this awareness that manifests the world, and manifests the idea of me?” Silence welcomes not-knowing and opens a gateway to the heart of things.

Awash with images, the world doesn’t need more pictures, but could use more poetry and shared questions of the heart. This photo essay, long upon my mind, is an allegory of doubt and inquiry. Beyond the horizon of my knowing, and nostalgic for a place I have not yet seen, the inexpressible burns bright the mystery of Being – a flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

Fred Zafran
October 2023

Exhibition Photographs

To view the exhibition images, use the directional arrow to the right to advance. The photographs are intended to be viewed in the sequential order presented.