conceptions
As a society, we are inundated with photographs that have been tweaked, transposed, montaged or airbrushed. The volume of photographs we see, as well as the knowledge that the majority of them have been manipulated by one technique or another, has created a detachment from the photograph in general. In my own work my goal is for the viewer to be less interested in deciphering the “realness” of the photograph (as an accurate representation of the real world) and focused more on the image as a symbolic element relating to personal experiences. I want to move from the detachment we have with photography to restore the wonder we once had with the medium. To do this, I have integrated traditional forms of image making with photography. My intent is to elevate photography from the mere recording of an image to the transformation of light into something tangible.
Today, photography is moving into a more virtual realm. Digital technology can promote a bigger sense of falsehood by convincing the viewer of the reality of an image through digital manipulation. Ironically, it is through increasing the level of manipulation of the original photograph that the image becomes more relatable.
As a photographer, I look to see whether an image is of an actual moment in time, or if it is fabricated to lure the viewer into a false sense of reality. As an artist I am not as interested in the reality of the photograph-- I am more interested in allowing the viewer to confront his or her own ideas of what a photograph is or what it can be. By creating work focusing on symbolic meanings of forms and their relationships to each other and to the viewer, I may then become better able to understand the fascination we have with the photograph as an actual representation of our daily society. As a species, we explain reality in abstract terms and we strive to understand the world by focusing on things we believe to exist outside of the world. With this style of thinking in mind, I have based my work on this human fascination with myths and mythology by using abstracted forms to create a representational mythology.
