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Issue link: http://digital.hylandmagazine.com/i/117778
Image from Bill Armstrong's Mandela Series 2003 motif disappears and in the final image the crossed arms, black body, and earrings all suggest vulnerability and even potential victimhood. This transformation is reinforced by the split between green and white in the background and by the black line that looks a bit like a projection of the helmet but may more closely resemble a stake to which the subject, in the last image, might be bound. For Christopher, the Transformation series is 'a spiritual narrative. The left rear field represents nature, the right rear field represents science, engineering, and the built world, and the dark channel between them represents grace, with the model's transformation a movement towards spirituality as seen in the life of Buddha and the life of Christ.' The narrative of power embodied in Christopher's sequencing brings us back, finally, to the first question I posed: who actually wields the force to transform here? The subject or the artist? This unanswered question is characteristic of the photographic aesthetic that Christopher has embraced. The photographs he makes and collects are mysterious in the sense that they disclose and conceal at the same time. This is particularly true of the work of Bill Armstrong, one HYLAND