Here is an artist statement I dug up from a university photography course. I think it still applies to my work today:
Portraiture remains the focus of my photographic work. I am interested in capturing a person’s personality with the use of photography, however, I am more interested in moving away from direct representationalism. Instead I like to explore abstracted methods, because non-representational photography allows me to explore more personal and expressive forms of portraiture, where I can directly influence and manipulate the image.
To begin, I explore the idea of photography as art making, whether this means manipulating the film/photographs through double exposure or with the printing process, such as double exposure, multiple exposure, layering, manipulated negatives and prints, painting or drawing with developer. These types of photographic methods, such as multiple exposure, distortion, reflections, photograms, non-photographic negatives, direct applications of developer and posterizationare are most commonly used by abstract artists.
For example, Val Telberg, born Russian artist, aligned himself with the surrealist painters and avant-garde filmmakers. His photography was largely influenced from painting and Surrealism. Telberg uses multiple exposures in the camera or prints from multiple negatives. This creates a layered effect that I am interested in capturing with my work.
Additionally, Paul Citroen largely influenced my ideas, mainly with the way he dealt with photography. He was a German artist who was largely associated with the Dada group. He studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar which influenced his principles in art making. He was an active photographer and painter, mostly known for his photomontage work. For this, he started with representational photographs and added layers of drawings over top, creating both non-representational and unique portraiture.
Contemporary Australian photographer Julie Brown-Rrap's work reminds me of Citroen’s photomontages. The difference being that Citroen’s layered work uses the true photograph as the first layer or background, whereas Rrap’s photographs of the human body seem to hover over her backgrounds and remain separate. Her use of acrylic, oil and print on canvas is beautiful and her backgrounds have an expressive message. Instead of using paint and canvas, I will try to achieve the same effects using painted backdrops.
My portraiture remains focused on experimentation with both photo taking and print processes, influenced by abstract photography. My series of portraiture makes use of techniques of layering, posterization, distortion, double and multiple exposures. Adding to this, I manipulate the print with the use of applied developer and layered transparencies (like photograms).
Here is a series of portraits that although are non-representational, remain crafted in a way to maintain the subject’s personality.
Here are the photographs from the project:
