Artist’s statement —

IN A MOMENT, TIME FROZE. ALL SITUATIONAL CONTEXT BECAME IRRELEVANT AND INTERNAL SENSATIONS TOOK OVER. I WAS STARING INTO SPACE— QUESTIONING IF IT WAS EVERYTHING OR NOTHING. IS SPACE DEFINED BY THE CONSTRUCTED ENVIRONMENT OR THE AIR THAT FILLS IT? SPACE II ALLUDES TO THE VISUAL LANGUAGE OF IMMERSIVE AND DISTENDING LINES THAT CREATE DEPTH WITHIN THE PHOTOGRAPH. DARKNESS PROMOTES A VOID OF EMPTINESS THAT ANCHORS THE EYE WHILE WHITENESS CREATES A SENSE OF EXPANSION THAT ALLOWS THE EYE TO FLOAT THROUGH SPACE. SPACE IV RECOGNIZES THIS VISUAL RELATIONSHIP, BUT CHALLENGES THE NOTION OF PERSPECTIVE; APPEARING TWO-DIMENSIONAL UNTIL THE BLACK OF SHADOWS SUGGEST OTHERWISE. THIS WORK IGNORES THE CHAOTIC EXPANSE OF THE EVERYDAY, CHOOSING TO QUESTION THE DIALECTIC BOUNDARIES BETWEEN THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE, THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL, THE REAL AND THE IMAGINED.

THIS VISUAL AND CONCEPTUAL WANDERING OF THE WORLD IS MEDITATIVE. BY CONSTRUCTING THESE MOMENTS, I AM CREATING ORDER WITHIN THE PHOTOGRAPH. UTILIZING PHOTOGRAPHY’S SUBTRACTIVE PROCESS, I CAN REMOVE ALL WE KNOW— CONTEXT, TIME, PLACE, AND COLOR —TO EXPLORE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF PERSPECTIVE.

PHILOSOPHER VILEM FLUSSER SUGGESTS IN “TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHY” THAT THE BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE LENDS ITSELF TO A MORE THEORETICAL WAY OF THINKING BECAUSE OUR IMAGINATION IS LEFT TO INTERPRET THE ORIGIN OF ITS EXISTENCE. FLUSSER WRITES: “PHOTOGRAPHERS…ALSO PREFER BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS…BECAUSE THEY MORE CLEARLY REVEAL THE ACTUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PHOTOGRAPH, I.E. THE WORLD OF CONCEPTS.”