Erin Harper Vernon, Self Image, Large Format Scanner Camera, 2011

Artist Bio

Born in Geneva, New York 1977.  Erin Harper Vernon is a conceptual artist, photographer, and educator. Her work extends as a regional and international based artist having recently returned to the Midwest from her studio in Germany. Former Herron School of Art and Design alumni she is currently teaching in the field of photography a related fields of study at IUPUI. Her work has past exhibited nationally and internationally and she is actively involved in guest lectures, workshops, and artist residencies.

Artist Statement

As a classically trained photographer, I see my straight photography projects and my digitally based images as separate bodies. Connecting them together include themes about dislocation, landscape, culture, and the environment. Maps have been an influential tool I use to inform my photography and influence my creative process while studying satellite images, city limits, or hidden ways to a site I want to document. Through my work I’m deeply interested in ethics about conservation and environmental guardianship.

In contrast to my photography, my lens-less digital projects are an exploration in pushing the limits of the camera. I commonly use crude digital tools such as computer screens, web cameras, scanners, and appropriated images from Internet. I am interested in how the computer screen becomes a conceptual frame through which we experience our sense of place. In reflection, my art and photography is often a cultural or political critique. Through my work I make the invisible visible, while searching for a connection to a deeper internal or psychological compass.