Arte Dea - INTENTIONS: photography

PHOTOGRAPHY: ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Historically speaking, the idea of metaphysical imagery stems from Giorgio De Chirio. It was about seeing a reality behind the obvious, perceiving the invisible within the physical realm. It is not really about transcendence.

As someone who was brought up by two professional photographers, I am a keen photographer and find it difficult not to see the world through the lens. The act of discovery is intense; catching a particular expression of one of my cats, making humorous observations of human life, isolating a piece of nature to highlight its aesthetic value, or elevating the ordinary to the level of abstract art is all fascinating to me.

While most choices are self-explanatory, the one regarding abstract photography may not be quite so evident. I think that as someone who values beauty it's satisfactory to find it in the ordinary.

The act of discovery during one of my photo shoots is intense, and this is especially true of my abstract photography. Interesting patterns and texture can be found in the things that people have thrown away or abandoned. It's my innate love of some of the basic elements of tangible reality – form, texture, colour – that becomes apparent in the compositions I create out of these. I aim to capture what I see and but then create a new whole out of the parts. This is not documentation; it is a process of altering what I've seen through the tools available for photographers to make it into something of heightened reality. Thus the discovery of beauty in the most unlikely places as well as the work that I do to an image after it has been captured are both crucial to the creative process. I hope this will inspire greater attention to the aesthetics that surround us.

The power of observation brings about a mindset apart from the normal attraction to that which is pleasant and beautiful. Paradoxically, by allowing oneself to look where beauty seems absent, one often makes interesting observations that can be transformed through the power of creativity into something intriguing and aesthetically pleasing.

I believe that one of the purposes of art is to awaken curiosity, and that feeling intrigued by a sense of recognition is fundamental to humans and therefore of the greatest importance. Out of this comes a sense of sharing, which builds bridges and supports us in our lonesome journey on Earth.

Perhaps in some respects, creating something without - relatively speaking - any deeper symbolic meaning acts as a counterpoint to what I do by hand through mixed media. Finding and capturing what is already out there is different from the more self-focused act of creating a symbolic reality. It is also often the expression of a certain minimalism, which is very much the opposite of the abundance that I like to express in my other art.

I find myself contemplating objects and their being-in-the world, and so it is only natural that I have also started to capture their almost metaphysical beingness in photos. Interior decoration has always been one of my great passions, but it's through photography that I feel that I can penetrate a veil and see something beyond the mundane. I photograph what I love; therefore one of my passions is also capturing the essence of my cats.