SF Camerawork Forecast 2019

An elderly man in a cap intensely studies a glowing rectangle inside a glowing frame. It feels as if he might get sucked in. A man in a very pale, variously pastel room contemplates an artwork that is out of the frame while a shadowy figure lurks nearby. A security guard watches visitors pass through a red tunnel towards a greenish yellow light, making sure they don’t stray off course The artist’s imagination of reality is drawn from the void of the unknowable. When we engage with art, we are engaging in the mystery. While the place in which we most often go to view these works—inevitably architectural boxes made of solid walls—hedge this effect, clues are present. I reimagine the visitor using the art as a portal, a liminal opening to another dimension from within the museum. I wish to show the museum as a place to encounter the universal mind. In this body of work the unfocused, abstract images are rich in color, shape, light and energy. By avoiding detail in shooting the images out of focus, I hope the viewer of my photos can also experience a portal to another dimension, creating a meta moment of the original but also by simulating this very engagement aesthetically and intellectually. My hope is that the resulting images serve as a sensory conduit for the viewer, much like a song encourages the body to sway to the rhythm or a story helps us to empathize with the humanity of the other. Ultimately I’m looking at this relationship between art and viewer in order to uncover what’s beyond the surface and at the essence of our relationship to the unknown. My method in photographing is an intuitive practice in that I explore an idea or a question, rather than illustrating a preconceived thesis. What becomes illuminated is that we are connected in consciousness and therefore empathy for each other is common sense. This series is for me the visual representation of this empathy that occurs when we do connect with the unknown in a creative and curious way. All images were created digitally in camera and processed only with the usual color and curves adjustments in Photoshop.