By Cory Donovan
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My long time model and Studio Manager, Cory Donovan, wrote this wonderful reflection on working with me for the past 23 years. It is reposted below and available to read on Medium.com, and reveals an intimate look from the other side of the camera. Enjoy!
~ Connie
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Waking into the gallery hosting “Endless Transformations: The Alchemy of Connie Imboden” at The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center is a bit like walking into Plato’s cave; the walls have been painted a muted medium grey, and the images that hang on them are like shadows of the “real world” that dance on the walls, clearly not accurate representations of figures in reality, and certainly not forms that can be understood through reason — or even in some cases recognized as “human”. I should know — I’m in half of the photographs. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
Plato’s famous allegory of the cave is about two radically different experiences of reality, two drastically different perceptions of the world and how we live in it. But unlike the captives described by Socrates in his dialogue with Glaukon, viewers who venture into THIS particular cave at the Katzen leave the world of the real and the intellect behind, crossing the threshold into a different state of consciousness and awareness. In this analogy, it’s a bit more like looking at the shadows in the cave to find deeper meaning in our existence. When we look at Imboden’s work, we may not always know what we’re looking at, or how it was seen without manipulation, but we recognize the expression, identify with the feeling, and find familiarity in the psychological state. It’s a very Jungian musing, and echoes Joseph Campbell’s quote “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”.
The exhibition is a 50 year retrospective curated by American University alum Kristen Hileman, who has organized the the work to highlight visions of the human body that evoke historical painting, global mythologies, and concepts from Jungian analysis. “These imaginative bodies-seen as the artist and her camera see and never further manipulated in the darkroom or digitally-are impossibly abundant and abjectly unsettling, yet visually resolved” writes Hileman in an essay accompanying the exhibition.
Interpreted chronologically, one could say “Endless Transformations” begins with examples of Imboden’s first forays into photography as a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art and in Minor White’s workshops during the 1970s. These original self portraits of an angsty, introspective teenager express an early ruminative and introspective self awareness. In one image, the young artists exterior persona is seemingly split, unveiling the true self behind the facade. In another, a broken and Scotch taped Imboden gazes at a pensive and detached depiction, like personified layers of the artist’s consciousness and insecurities.
This early work is the only example where Imboden used light and darkroom techniques to create her vivid reinterpretations — everything else onwards fragment and reconfigure the human body simply (or perhaps not so simply) through her vision and how they have been seen through the camera lens. Gorgeously printed and exquisitely inky black and white silver gelatin prints hang on the north wall of the gallery, displaying images from the 1980’s up to the early 2000’s. In some of the earlier images, the visual relationships that transform space and redefine the body are more easily identified, though the reinterpretation is the more salient than simply how it was seen. As Imboden dives deeper (pun intended), the human figure is completely transformed and the expression- sometimes quite literally- screams.
Photography has — not withstanding Photoshop and now A.I. — enjoyed a reputation for being believable, a visual document of something that actually once happened and was captured on film. If we’re not first drawn by the expression or the myth in Imboden’s images, we’re captivated by the fact that the strange, redefined forms — as wild and unbelievable as they may seem, were indeed seen through her lens. This contributes to a particular initial reaction to Imboden’s work. When we see raw, fleshy forms that we simultaneously identify with but don’t immediately recognize, we may be captivated or confused, riveted or repulsed. I’ve noticed that people often attempt to distract the confrontation with these raw responses by becoming analytical of how the image was created- how it was seen, what exactly it is that they’re looking at. It’s as if consciously unravelling the technical piece of the puzzle will soften the impact of the immediate impression. We could probably attribute this to our more modern inclination towards logical rationality, but I can tell you as someone with intimate knowledge of the work and Imboden’s technical process that no amount of this critical analysis can pull you away from the intensity of the images- eventually you will come back to the expression, to the mythos within.
Mythology buffs and Greek tragedy nerds will immediately recognize a plethora of classical themes and archetypes; Oedipus- with his eyes seemingly gouged and a figure stripped not only of kingly regality, but of- my god, skin? — reflecting the psychological horror of his story. There’s the disturbing yet undeniably tender embrace of what could be Ariadne and the Minotaur. Look closely at another image and you might see an apparition of Orpheus reaching out for his beloved Eurydice- look again and you might not be sure which one is beyond the grave. Similarly myth-twisting, you’ll find it hard to miss Narcissus, and you might strangely wonder which is the reflection, and which is the real….
The south wall of the gallery hosts work created from 2010 through as recent as 2024, highlighting Imboden’s use of color as an additional layer to transform the body. Many of the images here feel more emotionally driven, perhaps with a narrative tinge, and the introduction of color makes them feel, ironically, even less real. Through a complicated process of shooting reflections in broken, distressed mirror shards, the body is fragmented and redefined again. Impossible and yet tangible, visceral interactions are created between figures. In addition to redefining the human body, Imboden seems to reconceive immediately identifiable and undeniably transformed myths. In another essay accompanying the exhibition entitled “Mythology as Medium and Motive: The Reflective Lens of Connie Imboden”, Jennie Hirsh acknowledges “arresting episodes seemingly plucked from classical mythology; indeed, Narcissus, Andromeda, Orpheus, and Apollo and Daphne, to name a few”.
Which takes us back to another reverie of the cave.
Many of myth’s greatest heroes find themselves on a journey through some sort of “cave” — Odysseus in the cave of Polyphemus, or Luke Skywalker’s dream of entering a cave to slay Darth Vader, only to find himself behind that iconic black helmet. If we’re to go back to Karen Armstrong or Joseph Campbell, these are symbols for facing what lies below the surface, for looking beyond our conscious rational minds to face what Jung called “the shadow”, that is, our deeper, unconscious mind. The beauty of Imboden’s exhibition lies in its invitation to see the personification of the shadow, to take a stroll through the cave and be captivated by the reflections of our inner selves that emerge from darkness and into the light of the gallery walls. As I mentioned in the introduction, I am in many of the images in the exhibition. I’ve been working with and modeling for Imboden for 23 years, so the metaphorical reflection of my deeper, inner self in Imboden’s images- the projection of my shadow- is personified by who I see when I look in the mirror.
I’ve been asked what it’s like seeing so many images of myself hanging in the museum, and most of the time I try to play it cool. If I’m honest, it’s a bit like seeing yourself in a dream. Imboden’s work elicits the complexity of deep human emotions, the richness of deeply personal psychological experiences. They capture something that transcends the inadequacies of language, a connection to human truths that, yes Plato, go beyond what the real world has to offer. In some ways, I wonder if seeing my physical self in these expressions makes them all the more visceral, makes the alchemy all the more potent.
There’s a fascinating connection between mythology in Imboden’s work and her chosen medium — photography — that can be drawn with Karen Armstrong’s quote from The Case for God: “A myth was never intended as an accurate account of a historical event; it was something that had in some sense happened once but that also happens all the time”. The power of photography lies in it’s ability not just to document a thing, but to offer the encounter with how something feels — whether it stirs up emotions that we felt so intensely at a time in our personal history, or arouses passions common to the greater human experience. Karen Armstrong also states that art can take us to a place we don’t have any experience of — and give us that experience. I see myself in Imboden’s images not simply for my physical presence within them, but for the the complexity of deep human emotions and personal experiences I have had in my life, many of which undergone throughout the years we’ve been working together. In all this time, I’ve been through love, loss, the declining health and death of loved one’s, the birth of new family members, and any myriad of overwhelming victories and fantastic failures. Fear, joy, anxiety, confrontation, vulnerability, ecstasy and rapture. In Imboden’s images, I see the evolution of my body over the course of a couple decades, but more so the transformation and personal, inner growth into the person I am today through life’s complex experiences.
Great art is an invitation to expand and deepen our awareness, to push beyond the limitations of the “real world”, to transcend the inadequacies of language and communicate on a deeper, more meaningful level. This is where the alchemy comes in. Ancient philosophies use the esoteric practice of transforming raw materials into precious metal as a metaphor for inner growth, self awareness, and enlightenment. Imboden’s work provides us with a means to explore our understanding of ourselves and the world around us by giving us the opportunity to look deeply within ourselves, if we dare. And by exploring our understanding of our SELF on a much deeper and more meaningful level, we look into and deepen our connection with one another.
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