BIO

Lorraine Forte has lived in New York City for most of her life. Her photographs are usually environmental and ambient rather than subject-driven, inviting the viewer into unique perspectives of film noir-like locations.

“Photography is often subject-driven. The focus of my work is usually environmental, atmospheric, and abstract. I’m interested in creating places for the viewer to enter and find their own experience. I believe the absence of a literal message allows for a more personal one. I don’t like being told or telling people what they are looking at. A viewer’s engagement becomes the magic third between reality, the person shooting, and the final place an image lands. The shot is the take off point. What sticks visually and psychologically is what endures. My commitment in a machine-driven medium is to pursue an emotional, as well as, visual sucess rather than a technical or intellectual one.”

Lorraine began shooting and printing as an early teenager. After attending Parsons School of Design as a graphics major, she continued photographic studies with Lisette Model, Larry Fink, and Inge Bondi from Magnum.

NYU FALES library collection and Howl Arts Archive of downtown artists have three of her photo books. Macchiato is a book of nocturnal black and white images. It offers a dreamlike progression through New York, Kyoto, and several European cities. The New-York Historical Society has a collection of 42 of these prints. The second book, Loisaida Fireworks, is a series of images taken from East Village rooftops during annual fireworks displays. Concerns over a changing neighborhood and planet motivated putting the images together with photo abstractions of the silver and white paint added to roof tarmacs to deter climate change. The third book, Felted, is a carefully spliced combination of photos, respoken information about physics, and creative writing. “Is our behavior inherent in the structure that creates us?”

Two videos, Traffic Meditation and Flying Road, were shown at the New Museum and Exit Art with performances by a band that honors the work of Arthur Russell. Other photographic and creative contributions to performance and film projects include Black Kites, a film directed by Jo Andres and produced by Steve Buscemi that was shown at Sundance.

Despite her life as an urbanite, Lorraine is devoted to environmental issues. She received a government award for, along with other measures, designing a ‘low-cost-easy-to-install’ tree guard to protect and prolong the life of urban street trees. She also helps maintain a local compost site that produces the kind of soil that is essential to our environment.

Additional creative endeavors include curating a series of art shows for a club and a film festival for a local garden.Producing three type resources by photographing and culling letters from New York City buildings, neon signs, and random objects on the street. Graphic experiences include being creative director of a magazine and designing several commercially successful children’s books.