Five Originals [Exploded] Five Parts

“If there is a common photographic dilemma, it lies in the fact that so much has been seen, so much has been ‘taken,’ there appears to be less to find. The visible world, vast as it is, through overexposure has been devalued...The photographer feels he must search for, or invent what was once obvious.” – Wright Morris In Our Image

In our increasingly digitised world, it is common to feel disconnected from the objects and practices that once contained a human touch. As the recent resurgence of crafting communities demonstrates, it is comforting to go back to what we know, what we trust. Wright Morris despairs that there is “less to find” in our photographed world due to ‘overexposure’, but perhaps a possible answer to this, is to go full circle, lean back into the orgins of the photographed world and seek discoveries from a time where a photographic singularity was possible. By exploring what seems like antiquated techniques, maybe a photographic singularity can be offered to a digital society.

Where the paintbrush was once the primary tool in the quest to capture and represent the world, it is now, and long has been, in tension with the camera. Painting and photography have a dense and complicated history. Positioned, at one time or another, as both enemies and friends, they can capture a piece of everyday life for us to explore, reflect upon, or immortalise.

Five Originals [Exploded] Five Parts brings these two representational medias together so that they can perhaps breathe new life into a captured memory. Through the freedom and authorship that paint affords, the artist may intervene and become involved in the memory of another, creating originals from originals.