from "My Backyard"
Artist's Statement
November 9, 2016
Day After Presidential Election
My Backyard
Leona Strassberg Steiner
Images of My Backyard were taken while walking the Industrial Canal that runs parallel to Poland Avenue near the Saint Claude Bridge, in New Orleans. It was early morning and foggy, and unusually warm. When I got to the canal, there was a cop parked there, which made the whole morning a bit more eerie... I went up to his window and told him I was going to be shooting there. I don’t know why I felt the need to do that, usually I steer clear of cops. But this morning was not like any other.
I walk in beauty everyday.
Inside is glorious,
Outside is quite dark.
Soul is mine forever.
Leona Strassberg Steiner: "From the beginning of my photographic career, I have searched for ways to take photographs that are not realistic adaptations of what I see or perceive. When my work suggests an altered state of consciousness, or a dream like, or painterly quality, then I know that I have been successful in my endeavors. My photos suggest a place in time that maybe really does exist, but maybe not in our present dimension or time. I prefer to leave actual details as an unknown, so that the viewer is never really sure where this picture may have been taken or if it is even from this lifetime or realm of consciousness. Having come from the dance world, the visuals that I created then on stage were never what they seemed; this way of looking at the world continues in my photography and image making today." Leona recommends the Innocence Project - New Orleans.
