“Wandering in the Mermaid’s Palace” is my personal code for what happens to my photographs when I let my imagination run free in my Redux studio. Granted, photography is a medium not usually associated with fantasy. The camera captures what is before the lens, a particular moment is recorded, and fact often takes precedence over fiction. For years, though, I have sought ways to allow room for dreams, myths, stories, and transcendent experiences in my work. I create these alternative visions primarily through the materials I use—photographs printed on silk organza and layered over another image on paper or canvas, sometimes with additional collage material, to create a filmy, three-dimensional effect.

For my series, “Wandering in the Mermaid’s Palace and Other Photographic Fantasies,” I have created large silk organza shadowbox diptychs that take the viewer to strange and magical places. The unexpected three-dimensionality, together with the visual leaps from left to right panels, encourage viewers to set aside their previous expectations about photography and to participate in strange visual and conceptual wanderings. Small shadowboxes interspersed with the diptychs add side excursions to the dreamscapes.