Cig Harvey photographer, writer, educator

There’s a photograph by Masao Yamamoto that has haunted me for years; it’s a tiny 4×6 toned black and white picture of a lone white cloud suspended over a goal post in a dark empty field. It was like a punch to the stomach when I first saw this piece hanging on a wall at an art fair. I couldn’t afford it so I spent all day hovering around it. Every year after that I would go visit this photograph, sneaking up on it to see if I still felt the same way. I constantly search for a similar goal post when I am out in the world but that picture cannot exist twice. That’s what is so amazing about photography.

Seven years later it was given to me as a surprise gift by a very dear friend. It now hangs in my studio right next to my desk. I stare at it every day and it’s as magical and mysterious to me today as the day I first saw it. How is that possible?

Masao Yamamota, Goal

Cig Harvey had her first solo museum show at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Norway in 2012 in conjunction with the release of her monograph, You Look At Me Like An Emergency. She is represented by the following galleries: Robert Klein (Boston), Joel Soroka (Basalt, CO), Dowling Walsh (Rockland, ME), Robin Rice (NY), and Kopeikin (LA). Harvey is also Assistant Professor of Photography at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. (Photo of Harvey: © Cig Harvey)