Artist Statement:
The title of this exhibit is a play on and an homage to the great French photographer Robert Doisneau’s observation of his work that “My photographs are all self-portraits, done with compassion and a bit of mockery, and with the secret hope of setting the established order of things slightly askew” I find it both remarkable and inspiring to discover that such a remarkable photographer and man so succinctly presages my own attitude and approach to photography (and life).
I have always been fascinated and amazed by the world around me and also always been captivated by a sense of connection with both the people and things that comprise our world. Thus I am drawn to a common identity as much as any particular one(s) when I work. This is why I often shoot groups rather than individuals, often from behind not the front, often faceless or indistinct. Because it is often in the posture, or proximity, or positioning that I perceive that essence of human identity.
We all love light and shadow, it’s what makes up our world and what draws us to photography. Lately I have become much more focused simply on light (ironically resorting to radically “softened” focus to accommodate this technique) Without light there is no colour, no sight, no photography. These works celebrate, even exaggerate, the available light while capturing the most everyday of scenes with a dramatically softened focus. The files are then processed, painted actually, to render images which depict or suggest the “real”, the remembered and the imagined simultaneously perceived as one views the world around them. Light allowing one to see in a different light. Working in this manner facilitates my desire to create images which are both depictions of and reactions to what I photograph.”