Marianne Mueller

Marianne Mueller's series "A Part of My Life" was shown to me by Todd Hido. She is one of the first artists Hido introduced me to. After looking at her work over and over again, I feel so compelled to continue with what I am doing but take it to the next level. She takes very abstract photographs of her life and aspects surrounding it. Her images are simple but hold value and truth to them because of the complexity the subject holds. I love her work because it does not just focus on photographs. She explores herself and others in a multitude of ways...through videos, diptychs, drawings, etc. Her series "Combine" is probably my favorite of hers and has been the most inspiring. In that series she combines photographs kind of like the ones seen in "A Part of my Life" but she proceeds to show a line drawing of some sort paired with it. The feeling that these diptychs give me is overwhelming. I think it is because I feel like she is so good and I want to be like her or the fact that I have always wanted to include some other form of art with my photographs and to see it actually played out so beautifully is amazing to me.

"COMBINE (kom'bain) explores a way of looking at the world that manifests itself once you leave behind the orders of chronology, subject matter, and memory. I depart from my own archive and its structure and start to combine images taken in various contexts. There are mirror effects, doublings, contrasts, a kind of caleidoscope disrupting linear time, its parallel and sequential logic. An abstract fiction starts to emerge from my visual vocabulary." -Marianne Mueller