“It seemed clear to me early on that one of the things a photograph could do was make a reality, and I wanted to do that. I always think of looking inside an Easter egg and seeing a perfect world.” ThinkingWorldRealityWantedPerfectClearSeeingPhotographEggsEasterA Perfect WorldEaster Egg Author:Justine Kurland
“There's something political about creating a world that you want to exist.” WorldWantPoliticalCreating Author:Justine Kurland
“The naked figures in the landscape have willingly undressed for my camera. They are either perfect beings heroically occupying their Edens, or else they are gardeners after the Fall, lost and exposed to both the elements and the lens.” FallLostPerfectFiguresElementsCamerasNakedLandscapeExposedLensesGardenerEden Author:Justine Kurland
“Every adventure I've ever had with love and photography has ended in a similar misadventure. As is often the case, the rush of longing detaches from its object of desire, and my photographic ghosts lead me back to myself, alone.” DesireCasesObjectsAdventurePhotographyLongingGhostLeading MeObjects Of DesireMisadventure Author:Justine Kurland
“There's this way that photography is always about going out searching. I'm not the kind of a photographer who can photograph my home.” WayKindHomePhotographyPhotographerPhotographGoing Out Author:Justine Kurland
“If I stage things too much and nothing changes in the act of photographing, then I might as well have not taken the picture: If the whole thing already exists in my head, then I haven't learned anything. The tension lies between the staging and the unpredictability.” IfsWellsWholeMightLyingTakenToo MuchStageHavensTensionThings ChangeUnpredictabilityStaging Author:Justine Kurland
“I drove from New York to California by myself. The iconography of travel and escape is everywhere in my photographs... So actually becoming a runaway was crucial. I had this idea that I'd make my way across the frontier and find my story as it was actually happening in the landscape.” WayIdeasStoriesNew YorkBecomingHappeningsPhotographMy WayLandscapeCaliforniaCrucialFrontiersRunawayIconography Author:Justine Kurland
“We were really poor when I was growing up; my parents, both artists, were bohemians. Life was a desperate struggle, but in service of a high ideal, which is exactly what my photographs are about.” ArtistParentPoorStruggleGrowing UpGrowingIdealsPhotographDesperate Author:Justine Kurland