As I feel that my chosen profession of photography came to me as an answer to my long-term prayers, I expect religious storytelling will continue to be a major influence on my work as a fine art photographer. Since October of 2008, I have been creating a series of female portraits under the title The Women of the Bible, which will consist of 60 images in four parts. For the first part, I created 15 images of the women who were mothers of the important persons in stories from the Bible. Being influenced stylistically by both Pictorialism and Surrealism in photography, I used diffused lights, soft and selective focus, pastel tones, and metaphors and symbols in this body of work. For instance, many kinds of jars and baskets in these pictures were used to symbolize the women?s wombs while the bright light in the images, mainly in the jars, was used to represent God?s blessing. Also, through their facial expressions and juxtapositions, I tried to interpret the story of the women in the Bible metaphorically with my personal points of view. My process for this project was the following: (1) Creating original images in studios, (2) Editing, (3) Making slides from the digital files or from the inkjet prints of the images, (4) Making the Polaroid prints using Daylab and Type 669, (5) Polaroid Transfer, (6) Scanning, (7) Pigment-based inkjet printing on 11 by 14 inch watercolor paper, (8) UV and moisture resistant multiple coatings, (9) Mounting. I am going to create the remaining forty-five images in three different parts, Part II: The Warriors, Part III: The Prophets, and Part IV: The Devouts, and this completed four parts will be my portfolio for galleries and exhibitions. I hope that when people look at my work, they will understand this religious story and find beauty in these images, even if they do not have the same faith.
Gabe Sheen teaches photography at Hongik University, Seoul, which is one of the most prestigious art schools in South Korea. He also works for an influential art magazine, Arts and Culture (monthly), as a senior editor and columnist. As a photographic artist, he thinks that there are some undeniable essences to human life: ambiguity, difficulty, and mortality. For him, these limitations are all about human consciousness. Sheen believes that he is nothing at all without consciousness; he affirms, appreciates, and depicts it through his works. His primary medium is based on the historic Gum Dichromate Process, supported by modern technologies of color separation and digital negatives, which provide handmade and watercolor beauty.
