Lizzie Bernard

I do not believe in Photoshopping or editing my images. All of the photos you see on this website have not been altered in any way with a computer program. Any "tricks" I do with my photographs are either hands-on manipulation or in-camera settings, such as the fake fish-eye or vignette settings.  I believe in capturing the most truthful image possible, in the sense that I want you to see what my camera sees. I want to steer away from over-filtering and enhancing photos because I feel like it's kind of cheating. I don't care if there are slight imperfections, or if the photo is not exposed 100% perfectly. I am inspired by photographers like Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson in the sense that they focus mainly on composition, content, and capturing one perfect moment. It is this belief that sparked my interest in Polaroids, specifically credit-card sized Instax Minis. It is not possible to Photoshop a Polaroid because there are no negatives, no digital files, and no way to ever recreate that exact moment again. Each instant photo is a precious object.

However, my current body of work is exploring something beyond the Polaroid snapshot. What happens when you defy the belief of a Polaroid being precious and instead decide to butcher your cherished image? I want to explore the layering of two moments together: one being the original photograph taken, and the other being the moment of manipulation.

My art is a combination of creation and destruction, and I am investigating the peak of altering an image to the point where it becomes something beautifully abstracted. Destroying too little is very anti-climactic and I am constantly striving to manipulate just enough to reach that tipping point without going over and being left with something that just looks ruined.

When I transform these images, I honestly do not know how they are going to look until they are fully developed. The time in which one can modify is extremely limited and as soon as it starts to develop to a recognizable state, it is too late to change it any further. This means I won’t know if I am, for example, folding across a person’s mouth or through their eyes, until the moment of being able to manipulate the image has passed.

I discovered that my approach needed to be based on trial and error. My process involves an exorbitant amount of experimentation, and I have tried numerous techniques including crushing, skewering, bleaching, salting, scratching, folding, stabbing, pinching, crinkling, baking, stapling, and even microwaving my Polaroids. I do not suggest the microwaving. You will burn down your house.