Sophie’s Encounter

Artist Linda Raskin (American)

Date1987

DimensionsOverall: 19 7/8 x 15 15/16 in. (50.5 x 40.5 cm);
Image: 11 13/16 x 12 7/16 in. (30 x 31.6 cm)

MediumGelatin silver print (toned)

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1988.91

Not on View

Label TextWhen light is obscured and vision becomes inconclusive and blurred, even the most ordinary surroundings become unfamiliar, mysterious, and threatening. Linda Raskin has said that she “photographs situations not as they are perceived in everyday life, but as I respond to them on an emotional, visceral level.” This image requires more than the cursory glance to come to some understanding of the emerging forms. Raskin uses an inexpensive plastic camera like the Diana, originally intended as a novelty and infamous for malfunctions, to produce her dreamlike imagery. The Diana’s plastic lens can be easily altered through abrasion or coatings to further effect the transmission of light. Raskin often continues manipulation in the darkroom during the printing process.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Refraction/Reflection, April 20-September 2, 2012.