Marianne Lind
A surreal trip in the magical world of glass
By: Mats Alfredsson | October, 2022
My meeting with fine art photographer Marianne Lind shook me.
For a few minutes I wasn‘t sure what was real. What is it that I‘m actually seeing.
Marianne‘s images are a mirror of what surrounds us, but things that can‘t be seen with the naked eye. When she points her camera lens towards a plane of glass, such as a vase on the kitchen table, it creates optical phenomena that transport us into new realms.
– When I see into the glass with the aid of the camera, I can suddenly be transported north among snow covered mountains, sometimes to the ocean. It is much like a journey, inwards and outwards Marianne says.
Although this interview takes place over the phone, she takes me on an amazing adventure. Through her passion I see things such as I had never seen before.
– All of my photography takes place on the kitchen counter, the kitchen table or on a windowsill she says. A small tea candle may be all the light source you need to give the glass life enough to create an entire world. Every time is different. Always fascinating.
’Completely uninterested in what is on the other side’
Everything happens through reflections and refractions in the glass.
The usual misinterpretation, like the one I came to when we started talking is that she photographs through the glass and that whatever is behind creates the image. The truth is she is completely uninterested in what is on the other side.
By harnessing the ever-changing refractions of the light, the structure of the glass and the reflected colors from the surrounding she brings forth completely unique images, where nothing is as anything else.
In her series „Streams of Light“ there is an image called „And Time Pass By“. It can be found on her website and in her SPART collection. Marianne describes it as a reflection of evolution. I myself see down into the depths of the deepest ocean where fish like beings swim by leagues deep. You probably see something completely different. Everyone has the opportunity to come to their own conclusion and form their own narrative.
It becomes even more intriguing when Marianne tells us how the image came to be.
– A clear colored glass vase. The window blinds were pulled down. Light! The small “fish” are the rays that comes through the small perforations in the blinds where the string goes through them and is reflected in the glass.