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| Terri Weifenbach, XXII/38, Chromogenic Print, 22x14" Image, Edition of 14, $5,500 |
Spring is currently flourishing in northern New Mexico. The high desert is teeming with flowering cacti, wild grasses, and lush green pine forests. The earth feels alive in this season. For me, being outside in this fresh, colorful atmosphere reflects what it might be like to step inside a Terri Weifenbach photograph.
I have recently had the pleasure of re-visiting photo-eye Gallery’s physical archive of Weifenbach’s work. Using color film to make lustrous C-Prints, Weifenbach photographs plants, gardens, and landscapes to create dreamy, saturated fields of bright hue and texture. The spaces that she captures in her work are verdant, immersive, slightly blurred with selective focus. Viewing her photographs feels as though one were walking through a dream, lush and expansive.
For me, the most impressive part of the work is Weifenbach’s ability to capture clarity and haze simultaneously in each image. Her use of selective focus shortens the depth of field in her images to help the viewer feel as though they are directly inside the photograph. A slight blurring of foreground or periphery imitates the sensation of turning one’s head to take in the full wonder of a new space, or the movement of branches and petals shimmering in the wind. The fact that this complex composition and portrayal of space is all done in camera makes its effectiveness even more impressive.
In XXII/38 Snake Eyes/Lana (pictured at top), Weifenbach captures the delicate bodies of two periwinkle butterflies fluttering in a flowering bush. The branches and blossoms closest to the viewer are out of focus, hovering in midair like phantoms. These blurred orbs seem to press forward, almost out of the picture plane. It’s the middle ground of the photograph that is in perfect focus, drawing the viewer’s attention to the back side of the plant where the gentle blue butterflies dreamily pollinate bursts of fuchsia blossoms. It’s almost as if Weifenbach is giving us x-ray vision through the plant, or forcing us to imagine peering through the branches and leaves to witness this one tender moment.
Losing oneself in the palpable fecundity of Weifenbach’s work is a true pleasure. Whether her photographs feature wild plants in a landscape, flowers in a garden, or a tree in someone’s yard, she brings her viewers directly into contact with wonderful visual sensations. Each photograph offers an up-close and personal experience with nature and opens a dialogue about our human relationship with the world around us.
XXII/38, Chromogenic Print, 22x14" Image, Edition 1/14, $5,500 is currently in stock and ready to ship at photo-eye Gallery.
For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact photo-eye Gallery Staff at
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Des Oiseaux
Photographs by Terri Weifenbach
Editions Xavier Barral, Paris, France, 2019
Hardbound, Signed: $50.00
Limited Edition w/ Print: $775
» View Additional Books by Terri Weifenbach
» View Additional Prints by Terri Weifenbach
photo-eye Gallery
541 South Guadalupe St., Santa Fe, NM 87501
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All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.
Prices will increase as print editions sell.