UConn Traditions

Volume 5, Number 1 - Spring 2004

Photograph: Anna in the Seaweed, Deer Isle, Maine, 1998

Charles Hagen, Anna in the Seaweed, Deer Isle, Maine, 1998

Charles Hagen is associate professor of photography and video and the graduate coordinator in UConn's Department of Art and Art History. His photography is included in collections at Reader's Digest, Johnson & Johnson, Buhl Foundation and elsewhere. His work has been exhibited at the Aldrich Museum of Art, Lennon Weinberg Gallery, David Beitzel Gallery, Four Walls in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and the Benton Museum of Art. He is also a critic, having written for Artforum, ArtNews, American Photo and Afterimage, and is a curator of photographic exhibitions around the United States.

I made this photograph of my daughter, Anna, six years ago in Deer Isle, Maine, where we frequently go on vacation. As often happens, it was foggy that morning; we were walking along the shore near the cottage we were renting. Anna ran ahead of us and, for no apparent reason, lay down on the rocky beach. She has bright red hair, and when I saw the long tendrils of seaweed draped over the rocks I wanted to make a picture comparing the two. I framed the scene in various ways, but it wasn't till months later that I noticed this shot on my contact sheet.

Anna and my wife, Laura Newman, appear frequently in my photographs, but I do not regard my pictures of them as family photographs or portraits or even as documents of a time or place. Instead I regard my subjects as actresses and work with them to discover expressive gestures, creating a kind of symbolic theater. I use medium- and large-format cameras to increase the monumentality of the images and often light scenes with flash, held away from the camera, to heighten drama. These images are often posed, or at least repeated after an expression or juxtaposition is noted. Increasingly I work with large-format cameras, not only for the more detailed negatives they provide but also for the sense of ceremony they impose on the act of photographing.

I love the paradoxes of photography, that it's both public and private, the basis of both mass media and snapshots. I try to embody these paradoxes in my photographs of my family. I want my pictures to be personal and intimate, but commanding and inevitable as well. I value surprise and play in making my pictures - and count on the world to continue to inform and delight me.

Table of Contents

	UConn Traditions

		Volume 5, Number 1 - Spring 2004 Charles Hagen, Anna in the Seaweed, Deer Isle, Maine, 1998 Charles Hagen is associate professor of photography and video and the graduate coordinator in UConn's Department of Art and Art History. His photography is included in collections at Reader's Digest, Johnson & Johnson, Buhl Foundation and elsewhere. His work has been exhibited at the Aldrich Museum of Art, Lennon Weinberg Gallery, David Beitzel Gallery, Four Walls in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and the Benton Museum of Art. He is also a critic, having written for Artforum, ArtNews, American Photo and Afterimage, and is a curator of photographic exhibitions around the United States. I made this photograph of my daughter, Anna, six years ago in Deer Isle, Maine, where we frequently go on vacation. As often happens, it was foggy that morning; we were walking along the shore near the cottage we were renting. Anna ran ahead of us and, for no apparent reason, lay down on the rocky beach. She has bright red hair, and when I saw the long tendrils of seaweed draped over the rocks I wanted to make a picture comparing the two. I framed the scene in various ways, but it wasn't till months later that I noticed this shot on my contact sheet. Anna and my wife, Laura Newman, appear frequently in my photographs, but I do not regard my pictures of them as family photographs or portraits or even as documents of a time or place. Instead I regard my subjects as actresses and work with them to discover expressive gestures, creating a kind of symbolic theater. I use medium- and large-format cameras to increase the monumentality of the images and often light scenes with flash, held away from the camera, to heighten drama. These images are often posed, or at least repeated after an expression or juxtaposition is noted. Increasingly I work with large-format cameras, not only for the more detailed negatives they provide but also for the sense of ceremony they impose on the act of photographing. I love the paradoxes of photography, that it's both public and private, the basis of both mass media and snapshots. I try to embody these paradoxes in my photographs of my family. I want my pictures to be personal and intimate, but commanding and inevitable as well. I value surprise and play in making my pictures - and count on the world to continue to inform and delight me. Table of Contents
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