Crossing Path
I look through the lens of a camera, in a foreign country, one that I am now living in. I am an outsider by definition and chose to use this outsider stance as I explore my work.
I have been photographing buildings through fences. I photograph still lifes and I embellish both sets of images with drawn marks.
Why the fence? A fence serves to keep people in or out of an area, to divide an area and create a boundary. It is a way to decide who will get admittance. As a foreigner I become very aware of where I am not welcome, where the customs are different from the ones I grew up with. So the fence is a filter between me and this unknown country.
Why buildings? Buildings do not travel, they define a place. The Eiffel Tower is in Paris, The Great Wall is in China and so forth. They represent the place, the culture and the history. They are eyewitnesses to events there.
Why still lifes? In contrast to the buildings which I do not enter, that I do not personally engage with, the still lifes are of objects that I have interacted with. This brings the personal element into play, moving away from the photographer as the observer. I chose these elements with that intention. Still lifes do echo buildings as a subject though in that neither is dependent on action, on an expression or movement.
Why are the graphic drawn elements added in? Photography is essentially about observation and drawing is interpreting, interacting with the material. It becomes a conversation with the photographed forms, a way to move past the image by itself in a nondigital way.
Why photogravure? In the 1800’s photographs were often printed by photogravure, often for mass consumption. So just as buildings have an embedded history so does photography and I link those ideas up by doing this. Also photogravure gives a subtle three dimensional aspect to the print, since the paper is impressed onto the image to pull the ink off the plate. This physicality reinforces the idea of history. Also photogravure brings traditional printmaking into the discussion, a way of working that predates the digital. Again history.
These combinations of traditional and modern, outsider and artisan, drawn and photographed reflects my status in this country at the present time.
