In 1997 she found herself in Las Trampas, New Mexico, and discovered through its church and others like it in the northern areas of the state that interior spaces can evoke the same kinds of meanings for her as landscapes do. In both, she felt a sense of place and history, of hope and transformation. At once ethereal and haunting, her images are also transcendent, suggesting a balance between spiritual and secular.
“Debra Bloomfield’s Four Corners photographs capture the unique intersection of earth and sky and Spanish and Native American cultures that exists in the American Southwest. In these soulful works, nature and humanity seem to be of one piece, or perhaps more accurately, of one dream. Simultaneously harsh and serene, Bloomfield’s images of mesas and saints are imbued with a powerful spirituality that, as anyone who has been to this remarkable region can attest, is as real as it is compelling.”—Lawrence Rinder, curator of contemporary art, Whitney Museum of American Art
"In Debra Bloomfield's southwestern landscape photographs, color and light glow with a luminosity reminiscent of a Rothko painting. Her images, which transcend the visible, reflect the eternal spirit and energy found in these sacred places."—Judith Golden, professor emerita, photography, University of Arizona, Tucson.
"Bloomfield captures the timeless quintessence of life and universality of place. Her color interpretations are both literal and poetic not unlike the inventive spirit within the art of Georgia O’Keeffe. The photographs here sustain their own unique presence through subject, color, light, and space."—Steve Yates, Senior Fulbright Scholar and curator of photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe
