
Abstracts
Mulgrave
Port Mulgrave in Yorkshire became synonymous with making abstract art in my mind. Visiting repeatedly from 2011 to 2014, I explored many ideas including the crossover between photography, music and painting and used the all the available objects on hand - fishing huts, boats, the beach - as mere materials for making art. The subject was never the object being photographed. The project was completed exclusively on 5x4 Large Format Velvia film.
Inner Worlds
The photographic frame creates arbitrary boundaries that defines the edge of what a viewer can see. That inner world is a construct of the photographer. If the viewer were to be transplanted to the same time and space as the photographer, they would not necessarily see that same world. The construction of these inner worlds is purely in the imagination of the artist. In this portfolio I explore the construction of inner worlds in all sorts of contexts. In particular the portfolio explores the technique of dynamic balance in composition - finding ways of making the eye want to stay inside and dance around the frame.
Symbolic Representation
There is no good English word for this abstract technique that is suitably elastic. The basic idea is making pictures of objects where the object takes on (represents) another idea (symbol) in the imagination of the viewer or photographer. The most common examples include Personification or Anthropomorphism - giving inanimate objects human characteristics or form. Zoomorphism applies the same idea to animals. However symbols could be other concepts like religious artefacts (e.g. a cross), abstract shapes like circles or even abstract ideas like 'liberty'. This portfolio plays with these ideas.