Artist Statement

My artistic research is concerned with how we experience a work of art, in my case the photograph. Do we react instinctively and therefore experience a photograph as a 'snapshot' of life because the photograph often so closely resembles what we see as our own actuality? Or, are we inclined to dismiss the artistic photograph (as opposed to family/friend snapshots) as a deliberate act of falsification and therefore are inherently emotionally disconnected from them?

I am primarily concerned with the depiction of emotion, subjective sensation and concealed states of the body through photographic self-portraiture. In turn, the perception of the viewer is of great interest. How can these hidden subjective experiences be perceived through a photographic portrait? Can this be communicated through subtle gesture or performance and/or constructed composition without disclosure of the intention? Can the photographic image elicit a genuine emotional experience from the viewer purely compositionally and aesthetically, without the need for an image description essentially telling them what they should expect to feel, if anything at all?

I am interested in capturing the inner manifestations of the psychological and subjective human experience and in turn make visible the imperceptible truths of the subjective body/self often through gestural performative portraiture, thus examining the limitations of photographic representation and the psychology of the image.