Artist: Maria Passarotti

Photographer and painter Maria Passarotti graduated in 2000 with a BFA from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, NY. Her work has been showcased in many galleries in New York, including OK Harris, David Allen Gallery, John Jay College and the American Museum of Natural History, as well as in Vancouver British Columbia. She lives and works in Tappan, NY.

Her most recent photographs are inspired by the intersection of nature and humanity. Passarotti uncovers beauty in the most mundane of scenes. Dozens of empty trash cans strewn across an airy stretch of Jones Beach appear as elegant, upright characters on a stage; light from a pair of automobile headlights casts a saintly glow across a ground cover of fallen leaves; and a lush forested scene is surprisingly the edge of a college parking lot.

Nearly always absent of people, Passarotti's photographs evoke a haunting human presence through details such as electrical wires, roads and hints of domestic life. Having grown up in suburban Cresskill, NJ, Passarotti has always sought moments to freeze to define endless stretches of asphalt, vast parking lots and suburban backyards. The artist carefully selects scenes to photograph, often returning to the same location many times, waiting for just the right light, dew or mugginess to achieve a desired quality. The results are stunning, stage-like environments--which appear to be happened upon--often illuminated by street lamps or headlights.

Passarotti created the rooftop series - photographs taken of other buildings from various rooftops - when she lived in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn from 2000-03. Passarotti employed a very slow exposure, 5-30 minutes, which allowed her to capture the crisp detail of interior, inanimate objects glimpsed through windows, such as a dining table with candlesticks or throw pillows piled at a windowsill. She contrasts these items with shimmering, hazy treetops and puddles outside, the blurred effect the result of the slightest changes in wind or light during the long exposure time.