Featured Photographer: Sheri Lynn Behr's Series "Beyond Recognition"
© Sheri Lynn Behr, Primitive Guitar, 1988
The technological and cultural developments of our time are often defined by the rate at which we adopt faster and more efficient means of rapid electronic communication. We increasingly consume media at unprecedented rate than any other time in modern civilization. This adoption of instant communication has, according to photographer Sheri Lynn Behr, “altered the nature of what we see..” and has proceeded “…obvious glitches and errors” in the way we view the world.
Behr’s manipulated Polaroids from her series Beyond Recognition asks important questions about societies’ relationship with technology. They urge us to define “what is real” and what are just a “technological representations of reality”. And further, should be excited about the future or absolutely terrified? These themes have been prevalent in media since science-fiction first took hold of the world’s imagination, most notably by Philip K Dick. Both the famous author and Behr acknowledge that our world is constantly changing. However, his work, and now hers, are proving that long after things change, meaningful art allows for important questions, reflections, and philosophical introspections to become permanent in our collective conciseness.
Beyond Recognition is a clear departure from the Polaroid medium’s manipulation trend of the 80s and 90s and serves as a commentary on the mass media’s role in the development of our culture. The series’ images show split-second captures of stills from music videos of the 80s and 90s, but completely out of context. They were not immediately frozen in time and space once captured, as each image was just the beginning of her process. After exposing her film, she uses tools to manipulate the dyes in each Polaroids’ emulsion, allowing her to take the initial programming presented to her by the likes of MTV and turn them into deconstructions and interpretations that show how easily we can change the nature of our own reality. Similarly to the entertainment and news we consume, we are forced to fill in the blanks, draw lines, and think in circles to understand each piece of news, or in Behr’s case, the images presented to us. Her series is an exercise for viewers to practice their critical thinking skills that have become dull in the age of instant communication. We are forced to interrupt and scrutinize the images being flashed before our eyes to determine for ourselves if: what is presented to us is the truth or carefully engineered corruptions of those same ideas.
Once a concert and documentary photographer for publications like Rolling Stone and CREEM in the 1970s, she soon grew tired of printing Rock and Roll photos in her tiny bathroom darkroom and began using instant film in the mid 1980s. She shared with us that, “While I used my Polaroid camera to appropriate images from music videos, I wasn’t looking for the reality of the experience of shooting rock and roll any more, and in fact, I wanted the images to be so separate from that reality, that the performers would be unrecognizable”. It was through this inspiration that she began experimenting with how far she could diverge from the subject and still have the photograph represent the essence of her original capture. Viewers of her series are forced to ask themselves if the reality being presented to them is indeed the truth, or simply manipulated expressions of the person in control of what they are perceiving.
Ultimately, the beauty and genius behind Behr’s imagery isn’t the philosophical elements of her work, but the elegance in which she deconstructs each image and makes them completely her own. If nothing else to the viewer, they represent a rich imagination that knows it’s ok to break the rules of photography in the mission to bring about original and thought provoking art that shatters traditional notions of what media is or should be. Please enjoy Sheri Lynn Behr's Beyond Recognition and spend some time living with her series. Each time you come back to an image you may be rewarded with details and connections you missed the first time around.
© Sheri Lynn Behr, Untitled (85), 1985
© Sheri Lynn Behr, Over/Under, 1989
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in the Bronx, Sheri Lynn Behr studied photography and digital imaging in New York City and began her career photographing musicians and celebrities back in the day. Her rock and roll photographs were featured in Rolling Stone, CREEM and most music publications of the time, and are now collected, exhibited, and still published in books and magazines.
After several years working in the music business, Sheri decided to concentrate on personal work. Her photography projects have explored Polaroid manipulations, New York City's Chinatown, and the iconic Lucky Cat.
Recent work deals with photography without permission and our surveillance society. Sheri's photographs have been widely exhibited, at spaces including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, The Griffin Museum of Photography, and The Center for Fine Art Photography. They also appear in American, international and online publications, including Harper's Magazine, Slate: Behold blog, People's Photography (China), and The Boston Globe. In 2012 she received a Fellowship in Photography from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and in 2018 received a grant from the Puffin Foundation.
GALLERY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Behlen is an instant film addict and the founder and publisher of Analog Forever Magazine. For the last 6 years, Behlen has become an obsessive community organizer in the film photography world, including launching the independent publishing projects PRYME Magazine and PRYME Editions, two enterprises dedicated to the art of instant film. Through these endeavors, he has featured and published 200+ artists from around the globe via his print and online publications.
He has self-published two Polaroid photobooks-“Searching for Stillness, Vol. 1” and “I Was a Pioneer,” literally a boxed set of his instant film work. His latest book, Searching for Stillness Vol II was published in 2020 by Static Age. He has been published, been interviewed, and been reviewed in a quantity of magazines and online publications, from F-Stop and Blur Magazine to the Analog Talk Podcast. He loves the magic sensuality of instant film: its saturated, surreal colors; the unpredictability of the medium; it’s addictive qualities as you watch it develop. He spends his time shooting instant film and backpacking in the California wilderness, usually a combination of the two.
Connect with Michael Behlen on his Website and on Instagram!
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