There are few photographers that actually make me feel anything. When they do, it's usually paralyzing how much I feel. I like paintings more, honestly. Sometimes I go museum hopping in the city when I'm feeling empty and sitting in front of a painting can fill me up with feeling again. It's like that with things you appreciate. You don't have to understand it, it's just there, and you work your head around the idea the painting is and imagine these worlds and influences and it's just a nice feeling. Photography doesn't do that for me a lot of the time. I just flick past it onto the next picture. They don't always mean something, or they aren't meaningful enough, and that emptiness is a waste of time to me.
BUT! There are sometimes photographers who make me dream. Sometimes, they make me dream so much I want to just climb into their photographs and see the world as they see it. Allison Scarpulla is one of those photographers. You know those photographs on tumblr or weheartit that are like, hazy, nostalgic........... bland as hell? Yeah, Allison doesn't do that. They're like children's stories come to life, in the vein of Tim Walker and Wendy Bevan. Perhaps a mix of the two. A lot of them remind me of my favorite children stories, like Baba Yaga or the Brothers Grimm. They are monumental, they are fantastical, they are not nostalgic but ripe with actual feeling and a sense of existence and emotion that is seldom seen in photographs. I don't even know if they can be called photographs -- photographs imply a captured moment of reality, and I don't know any reality like the one Allison portrays. I don't know how she does it, but it's really awesome and I love it.
You can see more of her photos on her flickr and cry over her talent yourself. I wish I could tell you more about her and her inspiration and technique, but she has nothing on her website! I'm going to have to stalk her.
