Fill with Own Imagination 2016

Editor: This photograph, titled "Fill with Own Imagination" by Elina Brotherus, was taken in 2016. It looks like it’s a woman sitting on a frozen lake. I find the starkness really striking, almost desolate. What stands out to you in this piece? Curator: What's interesting to me is how Brotherus frames the image, pushing the figure into a corner and creating a very flattened picture plane. We are forced to consider the material reality of photography: the print itself, the paper and ink. Editor: I see what you mean, how she’s using the landscape, not just to depict a place, but almost as a prop. Curator: Exactly! The environment becomes a deliberately constructed space, a site of labor, so to speak. Look at the surface the woman sits on. Are those her marks, the traces of her making contact with this scene? How long did she spend setting up this shot, getting cold and wet in service of the artwork? Editor: So you’re focusing on the labor, the actual work involved in creating the image. It shifts my perspective; I was initially thinking about the solitude and open space, but now I see the choices the artist is making. It's interesting to think of it less as a spontaneous moment and more of a manufactured scene, a performance in the landscape if you will. Does the dress draw attention to this, highlighting the deliberate construction? Curator: I think the domestic quality of the patterned fabric, set against the stark landscape, further emphasizes the artificiality. This tension invites reflection on what it means to create, to make art. Editor: That reframing, focusing on production and material conditions, really changed how I see this photograph. It makes me consider the full process of creating art. Curator: Indeed, moving beyond simply what it depicts to examine the labor and construction of that depiction provides a rich ground for interpretation.