CANDELAR 2022: CANDUGUST
AUGUST FEATURE:
DEBE ARLOOK
Debe Arlook’s Prickly Candelabra is the featured image for the Candugust card.
Debe Arlook’s conceptual and documentary work is a response to her surroundings and the larger environment. Through methods of mixed photographic styles and digital post process, Arlook explores narratives surrounding relationships, personal growth and existential inquiry. The end of a 20-year marriage with three teenage children precipitated devotion and daily practice of spiritual awareness.
The title of the series, one, one thousand… refers to Debe’s sister Lori counting how long each of her son David’s seizure lasts. The project is an intimate documentary of a parent and child navigating the rare and incurable Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. Debe pairs black and white imagery with colorful manipulations inspired by David’s possible synesthesia.
“I suppose you have received many letters from desperate mothers. Here is mine.” My sister wrote these words to a neurologist in 1997 when my nephew was two years old…
…At 28, my nephew David experiences daily seizures, has minimal communication, scoliosis, severe autism, and requires 24-hour care. After years of pursuing conventional approaches to stop his seizures, my sister Lori turned to nonconventional healers, working in energetic and mystical realms. Her love for David and finding meaning through their circumstances fuels her dedication to his care and her own personal and spiritual growth.
Because of David’s minimal communication, we don’t know his internal experience. Since he was a toddler, I’ve wondered what he sees, thinks, and feels. Combined with Lori’s handwritten narrative, I employ multiple artistic interpretations to convey what is “real” and what is outside our realm of understanding…
When I asked David’s permission to make this project, I did not know if he would respond. In a rare and astonishing gesture, he leaned toward me with sustained eye contact. I got my “yes.”
It was in the mystical landscape of the American West that I began Foreseeable Cache. This work is my interpretation of the inexplicable experience of meditation and an homage to these sacred spaces. Translucent veils symbolize the chattering mind and external noises, with additional shifting into and out of mindfulness. Surreal and artificially colored, this work blurs the lines between reality and perception. Intuitively guided, the dual imagery of in-camera double exposures is a metaphor for the internal and external landscapes. These abstracted images conjure an alternate reality, merging the physical and spiritual realms.
Debe Arlook received her BA in Film and Media Arts with a Minor in Psychology from American University (D.C).
She has been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including Lishui Art Museum (China), Fotonostrum (Barcelona), Lancaster Museum of Art & History (CA), Foley Gallery (New York), Rick Wester Fine Art (New York), Griffin Museum of Photography (Massachusetts), Center for Photographic Art (Carmel, CA), Colorado Photographic Arts Center (Denver, CO), A.Smith Gallery, (Johnson City, TX), San Diego Art Institute (San Diego, CA). Arlook has been recognized for her ongoing “one, one thousand…” portfolio with Photolucida Critical Mass TOP 50 2022, Critical Mass Finalist 2021, CENTER Social Award Honorable Mention 2022, Las Fotos Advocacy Award Nomination 2022, and others. 46 prints are on view at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Fulginiti Pavilion for Bioethics and Humanities through February 2023.
Her photographs have been featured in Lenscratch, Frames Magazine, Fraction Magazine, L’Oeil de la Photographie, Strange Fire, Rangefinder, Shots Magazine, What Will You Remember, and One Twelve Publishing. Books include California Love, Perceive Me, and Emptiness Defined.
In addition to her studio practice, Arlook is on the teaching roster at Los Angeles Center of Photography and John C. Campbell Folk School. She is a Pasadena Photography Arts Advisor and PhotoBook Journal contributing editor and resource manager. Arlook transitioned from the darkroom to inkjet printing and founded Arlook Printing Services in 2016, where she provides project consultation and archival printing for fine art photographers. She is based in Santa Monica, California.