A Lasting Vision: Photographs from the Institute of Design, 1970-2001

Artist statement in the exhibition catalog for “A Lasting Vision: Photographs from the Institute of Design, 1970-2001” edited by Anne Neri Kostiner at Illinois Institute of Technology, Crown Hall, 2015

Mati Maldre, Class of 1972

Before I entered graduate school at the ID, I had limited knowledge of the history or potential of photography. The advice and critiques with both faculty and fellow students provided me with the background, skill set, and expertise to excel professionally as both a photographer and a professor of art/photography at Chicago State University.

From Arthur Siegel’s history of photography class, to the ID community’s attitude and encouragement to accept that one can violate preconceived notions about what is “Normal” in photography, the ID helped me grow and learn. As seen in these photographs, I created a visual tension between the altered color and the natural color of things with a triple exposure, meanwhile utilizing in-camera color separation filters. When an object, person, or shadow moves between exposures, it will be recorded as a transparent complementary color of the filter used. The transparency of the things that moved between exposures lends them a transient quality and reaffirms their temporal ephemeral nature.

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