“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”
– Rumi –
Francisco Diaz – The “Ascension” conceptual photography are what I’ve termed a cinematic narrative photomontage series that references the moment of enlightenment or that sense of rising to “full comprehension of a situation.” Not specifically religious in intent, it alludes to different ideas such as Buddhist terms and concepts, most notably Bodhi, referring to “awakening” and “understanding;” Hinduism, Mukti”to let loose, let go;” Jainism’s notion of moving the soul toward divine consciousness and liberation; and so on.
The series also refers to folk-tales such as Cinderella, when in Ascension 17 and 3, I present a shoe that is lost or dropping. Since the Cinderella tale of the poor maiden who wishes to rise above her dark circumstances to the heights of royalty, fits in nicely with the Ascension idea, I slipped in references to that wonderful tale.
The photographs for this series are cinematic narrative photomontages, fictions meant to seem like snapshots of “reality.” The implication is that our reality is created through the limitations of our perceptions. This allows me greater flexibility in controlling the visualization of each image. I am not attempting to find that unique moment and then document it. I am trying to create that “unique moment,” which makes my process closer to a cinematographer then a documentarian.
At its core the “Ascension” series discusses what it takes for us to face our demons and rise above them, or as Rumi says, “… to let go of life and finally to take a step without feet.”
About Francisco Diaz
As a digital photographic artist, Francisco Diaz has embraced the 21st century wholeheartedly, creating cinematic narrative photomontages montages that speak about the road we must travel in order to lift ourselves out of states of inertia that limit our potential.
He is an artist/photographer based in the USA. He holds an MA from Adelphi University and a BA from Queens College. A previous first prize winner at the Texas Photographic Society International Photography Competition he recently was one of only 3 core American artist/photographers invited to exhibit at the 2013 Ballarat International Foto Biennale in Australia. Along with artist/photographer Deb Young, he was named photographer of the year at the 6th Edition Pollux Awards, the Fine Art and Documentary Photography Biennial held in Malaga, Spain. In May 2015, he and his collaborator New Zealand art photographer Deb Young are having a solo exhibition of their “Playground Series” at Soho Photo gallery in NYC.
Diaz and Young also had a unique vision for what has become The International Collaboration Project: an inspired artistic effort wherein art photographers create works jointly from different corners of the globe, coming together using Facebook as a creative portal focusing their energies on the creation of powerful new photographic work rather than international discord. [Official Website]
