Vanishing Point

My objective with the Vanishing Point series is to eliminate the specificity of a scene to the point at which objects cease to exist as physically identifiable and become simple volumes on a flat surface. By controlling tonality, shapes and spatial relationships within the frame, I create compositions that emphasize the flatness of the image on the paper’s surface. I’m interested in challenging viewer’s preconceived ideas of what a photograph contains. Inherent in viewing a photograph is an assumption that is absent when viewing a painting: a photograph must be of something identifiable. Many people who readily accept abstract painting look at an abstract photograph and ask – what is it? By deconstructing the photographic image, by pushing subject matter to its Vanishing Point, I hope to challenge this idea. Creating these images is an intuitive process for me. Using basic rules of composition, variously following and breaking them I arrive at an arrangement that feels right to me. Generally this work emerges in one of two ways; it can start with a composition of tones or forms in mind and then find a situation to fulfill the concept or, I happen upon a location with strong geometric shapes. This work connects with a rich history of abstract/non-representational photography. The work is formalist in that the power of the image is in the forms and their relationship to the voids rather than subject matter. The images are what they are – no more no less.