When was martina lopez born

In later images Lopez began to incorporate found photographs and images taken from family albums other than her own. In doing so the artist created works which reflected her own thoughts and experiences, but also allowed the viewer to bring their own interpretations and memories into the work. The turn-of-the-century photographic studio portraits which figure prominently throughout Lopez's work evoke a resonance to our own individual memories of family and past experiences.

The rigid and contrived poses and settings which were common in photographers' studios of that period often mirror our own personal photographic archives of familiar faces and distant relations who, although disconnected by the passage of time, are linked by memory or through stories which have been passed down over generations.

These photographs then become a mnemonic for a specific memory where an image of a birthday party, a wedding, or an individual duplicating a gesture, or wearing a familiar outfit, or standing in a recognized place provokes a synchronous recollection in our own lives. The figures in Lopez's images vary in scale and placement within each scene and are rendered in monochromatic tones so they seem to have no direct connection to the fabricated landscapes they occupy.

The surreal landscapes, composed of disjointed topographies that are appropriated from other sources and from photographs made specifically for the piece, become a stage setting in which the placement of each character is carefully choreographed. With the death of my father, I started working with my family archives. My work began to focus on the relationships of people, specifically that of families. It was also at this time that I began to use the computer for my art making. Since then, the elements of the family photograph and the electronic media remain prevalent in my work.

I describe my work as a visual diary. Things that I'm thinking of, things that have happened. Not necessarily a narrative but suggestive of the mood or thing, ideas that I'm thinking of. Photography is—I just love the way that it's so pliable. I was introduced to computer-making pretty early on, and it just seemed to mesh. The way that it could be manipulated and become something else so easily.