Recently I’ve really come to understand the power of an image to makes sense of things that words simply can’t express and have started to explore how images can communicate complex ideas. The three images I sent you from the Missing Series generate a lot of discussion when I’m at art fairs or exhibitions. The Missing Series strips back a portrait by taking away the face, hair and fashion choices that people typically process first. Then the images in this series focus on one element that makes us human.
Autumn for example focusses on the passing of time, new beginnings, or changes (depending on people’s perspective). People see so many different things in this image so I enjoy not leading people but letting them tell me how it speaks to them. Infact I wrestle with naming my images at all because I don’t wish to dictate to people what they might or should see in an image.
Vanity (the lilac image – because lilac is often used to represent vanity) speaks to our ever increasing battle with vanity. Not only do we have to contend with the age old concerns of how we look from day to day but now have to do battle with ‘vanity metrics’ thanks to the rise of social media.
Finally, Time, this image depicts the passage of time and how our bodies move and change with that, ticking along if you like.
In technique I use digital photography and adobe photoshop to create images that are recognisably photography (in-fact all the elements are photographed), remains believable, yet cannot be real.
