Flashes of Light & Life

In his photography, Michael Flomen takes the beauty of nature and abstracts it into large scale black and white works that are somewhat discombobulating to the viewer. What are we looking at? Where are we? The fluctuation between abstract and representational creates stunningly complex images. Using elements of nature, the movement of the wind and the moon for example, he invites the viewer to take a very different look at the natural environment.

As part of the HUMAN=NATURE show at the Firehouse Gallery, a set of five exhibits exploring the relationship between humans and their natural environments, Flomen has contributed Higher Ground, a photographic study of the movement of fireflies. In creating a system in which the fireflies found themselves floating between photosensitive paper and a sheet of glass, Flomen was able to capture the patterns left by their bioluminescence. What is left on the photo paper is, as curator Victoria Anstead writes, “flight patterns…streaks of white, and the insects’ characteristic pulsating [becomes] exploding orbs of light.”


In these photographs one sees the patterns of life for a small family in the animal kingdom; mating patterns become “elaborate ballets,” patterns of flight become the trail of a dialogue, a moment of movement in nature is frozen forever in a gorgeous tableau. Perhaps what is most tangible here is the memory of human interaction with nature: a childhood memory of warm summer nights spent chasing after fireflies. The large image serves to heighten this experience of childhood wonderment – what are these incredible creatures glowing in the night sky? Incidentally, fireflies are a symbol for nostalgia in Japanese culture, a theme explored in the 2001 film Firefly Dreams. In Flomen's show they serve as a means of exploring this theme.


Flomen’s photographs suggest that we must pay attention to the smallest aspects of nature; that there is beauty in the shortest moments, the slightest movements and importance in the minuscule aspects of our natural environment. We all depend upon one another in this world. His work gives us a novel way to enjoy moments we perhaps have forgotten or did not fully appreciate. To enjoy and reflect upon our interactions with nature, rather than solely the connections to our human developed environments, is suggested with this series. Flomen's show runs through July 30 and is on the second floor of the Firehouse Gallery on Church Street Marketplace.