March 1, 2010 Artist Entry: Iveta Vaivode

I just came upon Vaivode's work after seeing artists featured on Seesaw Magazine (an online photographic magazine.) This was a blurb about her work and a brief bio of Iveta Vaivode:

I absolutely love her description of the series "terminus Riga" and it reminds me a lot of what I love to capture in my nighttime images:

There is a mystery to shooting at night. There is something about going out really late at night to shoot alone that is both calming and terrifying.

I am interested in where the lines of the civilized world (suburbia and subtle indications of suburbia) and the natural world intersect. I am trying to create a narrative by shooting things we wouldn't ordinarily take notice of (edges of homes, trees, sky, etc.) and the way the artificial light pollutes the natural world surrounding suburbia. I pay attention to the way the light creeps up and over each blade of grass through the yard and up the walkway, the way the porch light illuminates leaves from the trees, and where the televisions illuminate rooms in homes and creep into the night just outside the window. I want to begin at ground level and work my way up into the tips of houses, trees, and sky of the natural world and then right back down to suburbia. I want my images to be romantic...and eerie.

Vaivode's work is really stunning. I love the narrative she tells through her imagery and how her images of night are married with portraits of people and other scenes.