New Godfrey Dean exhibit reflects a longing

Dolls evoke emotions for many, and it is those emotions which photographer Vera Saltzman has tried to capture in her exhibition ‘Winnie and Sue’.
The show, a series of 14 portraits of women over 40 with their childhood dolls, now occupies the main gallery at the Godfrey Dean Gallery in Yorkton.
“Sigmund Freud believed the uncanny to be something that leads us back to what is old and familiar but is at the same time “unheimlich” or uncomfortable,” wrote Saltzman in her artist statement. “This series explores the idea of the uncanny as it manifests in a longing for youth, and recognition of mortality.
“Driven by the nostalgia of our lost childhood, many of us have kept our dolls: sitting on a shelf, buried in a box in a closet, locked in an attic. In these portraits, women over 40 are posed with their childhood dolls. Each doll serves as an entry point into the history of our life which is both strange and familiar.
“In my photographic survey I consider the rediscovery of these doll-mementos, which lead these women to recall a past of comfort and security. It’s hard to imagine a time and place when we would have played with these dolls. As young girls we spent hours with them. Our friend and confidant, they kept us safe at bedtime, while comforting us during stressful times. Those days are gone forever, yet eternally present as evidenced by the doll: an assurance of a past.
“These images are tinged with a sense of memento mori, a phrase dating to Roman times that means ‘remember that you are mortal.’ As I age, I am constantly reminded of life’s uncertainty. “This series helps me reflect on the human condition: the transience of life and the inevitability of death.”
The works in the show were created half a decade ago, said Saltzman, adding they have “they’ve been together for a while, and sitting in a box.”
Saltzman, who was born and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, came to photography somewhat late in life. She told those attending the show opening reception at the Gallery Sunday she was 48 before attending the School of Photographic Arts in Ottawa, completing their portfolio development program.
Through her work, she focuses her attention on issues of identity and the development of a “sense of place,” the passage of time and the fragility of life.
Saltzman, who now lives in Fort Qu’Appelle, won the Silver Award in Saskatchewan Prairie Light Photography Festival for ‘Sue and Winnie’ series.
It was the Prairie Light award which opened the doors for the photography series to be collected as a gallery show, said Saltzman.
So why the focus on dolls?
“I had my own doll sitting in my mother’s attic for a long time,” she told Yorkton This Week, adding even when asked “to get my stuff out of the attic I couldn’t give up the doll.”
That germ of realization of the memories the doll held, led to Saltzman exploring the theme with other women and their dolls.
In most photographs the women seem to almost be looking into the past.
“There is certainly a sense of longing for our youth,” said Saltzman.
It is the longing, the almost sadness of the women Saltzman said allows those viewing the works to read into each their own sense of emotions.
Some see the works having an eeriness.
“I think that what we want … we want that happy picture,” said when that is not the immediate image, it can be off-putting for some.
But Saltzman is all right with whatever emotions the works illicit in others, adding she had to satisfy her own emotions in creating the pieces.
“My feelings I can’t separate that from what I do,” she said. “That doll for me makes me feel sad, that longing.”
And she can live with others feeling differently.
“Whenever you put something out you always have to remember people’s interpretations of the work will be different,” said Saltzman. “If you can get people to have a reaction, you’ve done your job.”