Amy Montali

Amy Montali

I invent pictures for the camera on site in real time, using the visual and psychological elements each situation provides. A rotating collective of friends and acquaintances collaborate in the process and appear repeatedly in the images, often over many years. Activities vary according to the interests and ideas of each participant; we loosely arrange the scenes.

I use a large-format view camera and negative film, a particularly slow and deliberate method of image-making. Individuals may pose briefly for each exposure, but none of the work is pre-conceived or staged in advance. Instead, we construct and deconstruct as we go, like actors or dancers developing new gestures or phrases. I see these as momentary performances, like etudes or soliloquies; they are neither portraits nor documents.

For each viewer, a new story unfolds.