This year, I want to have an exhibition of my art work. Not because it is a commercial venture, but simply because I want to show my work to a local, broader audience that may not have any idea what it is that I do.
I've been building up a body of photographic work for the last six years; if not longer, and it is time that I do more than simply share it online. I want to print work, put it on a wall, and point to it, and say, "I did this, and I want to do more".
For the last few weeks, I've been thinking about intent, and of course, a name for my exhibition. I've settled on the word "Myth", and well, here is a bit of rambling that will probably make up a combination of an artist statement and an opening speech on the evening.
My photographic work reimagines the narrative depth of Pre-Raphaelite art through contemporary photographic portraiture. Each image is a carefully orchestrated moment that transforms unremarkable moments into living archetypes suspended between reality and myth.
Trapped within a moment, these images are not indifferent spectators, simply recording photons, but an active storytelling medium. The portraits displayed here form more than a representation of a person – it's a paragraph, a moment distilled, as a fragment of a larger, deeper narrative.
Light, shadow and colour are not technical, pictorial elements, but narrative tools.
This exhibition endeavours to evoke one of the many Pre-Raphaelite practices of taking contemporary people and transposing them to exist within myth.
My fabrications are both documentary and fictional. Each photograph is intentionally constructed to invite viewers into a state of narrative suspension. Are these images lifted from the pages of myth, or are we contemplating our very reason to be?
These are not just pictures of people, but moments that are distilled for you to explore. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much I enjoyed creating them.
So far, I have four works printed for the exhibition. These works are what I consider to be my "favourite works".
If you've read this far: I'd like to ask you all a favour, based on my description above, what single image from my website would you select if you were curating the exhibition? The link above has hundreds of my photographic works.
Take a screenshot and post it in the comments.
So far, my short list of works to print and add to the exhibition are these ones:
So so far, I have six images, but what I need to do prior to taking some more steps on this endeavour:
- Have a look at the gallery space
- Collate the digital images so I can set up a print store of these images
- Review my photographic library for work that is suitable to include in the exhibition
- Produce some new work for my own creative outlet
- Work out the financials based on the cost of prints and the cost of frames
- Schedule
- Deliver
- Set up a companion blog page for the exhibition on my website (of which this rambling is the first step)
The exhibition will take place somewhere in South Australia, and there will be an online component, too.