I fragment and sample original photos, remixing them into something new.
My photo remixes combine and interweave original photographs. I shoot different angles, different parts and different treatments of locations or settings and assemble them into a new whole.
The subject matter is as varied as a forest stream, a processed-food factory, a dancer, or a subway station. Like audio remix artists, I break things down and re-combine them into something new, flavoring the fragmented original with my own subjective/emotional/spiritual/nerdy interpretations.
These multiple perspectives are frequently beyond sorting out. In many instances, the viewer’s initial question is “What am I looking at?”
When humans look at an image – a picture – they do not see a dot-for-dot representation in their brain. We initially “see” shapes and colors about which we quickly recognize familiar patterns that resolve into summary identifications: sky, car, face, tree, wall. We detect edges and make assumptions.
When you look at my art, you begin along the familiar path by seeing shapes and colors, and make some summary identifications. You know whether the setting is inside or outside and generally which parts of an image are animal, vegetable, mineral or human made. And then as you look further, you leave the familiar perceptual path. You are with (and in) something new and beyond where given reality ends.