them because they’re essentially photo-
graphs animated only by a subtle, loop-
ing detail, an effect created by combin-
ing stills with video in post-production.
In one piece, large snowflakes fall
on Harvey’s bundled-up daughter,
who’s perched unmoving on a rock-
ing horse; in another, petals descend
from a tree in front of a young woman
standing utterly still with her face to
the sun, eyes closed; in a third, fire-
flies and other insects swirl around a
girl posed on a brushy hillside hold-
ing a small wooden birdhouse. The
movement itself seems to be in slow
motion. “They’re kind of a medita-
tive experience,” says Harvey galler-
ist Klein. “They force viewers to be
patient and wait.” Says Harvey, “The
motion pieces extend time, and time is
a photographer’s currency.”
As if to animate her work even fur-
ther, Harvey’s latest undertaking has
brought her into the world of perfor-
mance. Creators of a new staging of
Hungarian composer Bela Bartok’s
expressionist opera Bluebeard’s Castle
took notice of her work at New York’s
annual AIPAD show, asking her to
serve as the production’s visual direc-
tor in order to make it more “contem-
porary,” according to Harvey.
A co-production of the Atlanta and
Austin opera companies, the piece will
premiere in late 2021. The story, based on
a centuries-old French folktale, explores
the castle labyrinth of a mythical and
violent nobleman through the eyes of his
new bride; it has a dark-to-light emo-
tional range that seems perfectly suited
to Harvey’s vision. “It’s going to push
my work to a whole new level,” saysthe photographer. “Not only will there
be projections of still images but also
motion pieces and possibly holograms.”
Yet Harvey sees the opportunity
as part of a natural continuum—an
extension of the “creative life,” as she
calls it. Given the intimate emotional
scale of her images, the transfer of the
photographer’s artistic sensibility to the
ambitions of theater will be interesting
to see. So will the relocation of her pic-
tures to an imaginary past from their
palpably rural, present-day American
setting—from Down Maine, as Yan-
kee old-timers used to say.
“The work is pretty recognizable
as being born of the earth here,” says
Ogunquit’s Mansfield. “As an art-
ist, a mother and a person, Cig has
found something in Maine that’s
important to her.” DPP“The Poppy and Greenhouse,” 2019
40 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com