Piedra y Sombra (Rock and Shadow) is an analog photography series using a riveting multiple exposure camera process. 
The technique I en-root in producing these images has been the catalyst for a diverse assemblage of multimedia projects. In them, I combine my cultural and family background in Kiskeya and Borínken with my native birthplace in the east coast, New York. 

In 2017, I began Rock and Shadow during a photographic trip to the Hoover Dam in Nevada and later that year to Rio de Janeiro's jardím botanico. In the meantime, I was on assignment in my hometown to photograph botanical gardens, urban foliage and decaying landscapes. 

Upon unveiling my black and white film, the scenes from my travels and panoramas from my abode interacted as overlapping textiles. This revealed a chronology that was formerly non-existent. 
And thus abruptly began, by accident, the archeological process that I call Rock and Shadow. Rocks are the organic foliage, fauna and folks that are natural to us, Shadows are what are created from modern architecture and civilization, in my opinion, always mimicking nature. 

The decision was made to evoke a colorful version of the multiple exposure process, titled Piedra y Sombra, after the sublime rediscovery of film negatives from a trip in Italy in 2012 that were taken in a similar way. 

Piedra y Sombra echoes vibrancy as its images are in color and transcend into vertical landscapes, video, wearable art, and three-dimensional photo objects. 
Rock and Shadow is a study, an archive, of the gradients and textures within the newly invented environment.

The intent of the journey of this work is to encourage myself and viewers to celebrate nature and its overwhelming significance, to spur ingenuity in one's interests, and to contribute to the utilization of sustenance in the production, display and enjoyment of art.

(c) 2021 Melanie Gonzalez, Suzanna Productions