My photos are unworthy of a wall, a plinth, an installation. They have been banished to the deepest, darkest corners of the college, hiding in plain sight, but watching over in secret, waiting, protecting...Sorry I’m quoting Transformers for some reason.
When I think about my approach to presenting my work in the past it’s always turned out to be a hesitant, shoddy, last minute attempt. I’m not really one for exhibitionism; I am a perfectionist and am reluctant to display my work unless i am totally satisfied with it, which in this case I wasn’t. The presentation of my photos ended up like this because I simply wasn’t happy with them. I became interested in exploring classic photography techniques at the beginning of the year, as I believe it is important to acknowledge the traditions of photography, the simplicity of what a camera actually is and how it works and ways in which we can record the beauty of the world we live in. In a snap happy era where digital cameras provide us with a fast and furious method of capturing what we want to capture, it is quite easy to see why traditional photography is becoming obsolete.
Ok, so I don’t think my photos were a convincing statement about the greatness of traditional techniques, but what interested me about my photos was that it was always uncertain whether it was going to work. With digital photography and well, digital everything, things are so easy to get right, it was exciting to use my cameras and just see what turned out.
The tried, tested and eventually failed approach to my project was always going to create some issues when it came to the final presentation, although I was creating a lot of this shit it was difficult to know how I could create some kind of display from it. I decided to look at my photos and cut out all the flaws, the bad parts, the parts that a photography teacher would despise and want to gouge his eyes out in disgust, and hide them around the college in places which I felt happy putting them in.
But If I continue to hide my work, who will know I’m there? Who will hear my voice? What is the point of making an insignificant art piece? My work is out there, you just have to find it, if you care to notice.
There is a really interesting dialogue going on between you and your work. The fact that we are now aware that you are placing work around the college means that we can start looking for it. This is interesting in itself. Perhaps you dont really do anything and instead leave false clues as to possibilities. It could be an entire fiction. You narrate well and this could be the start of something serious. James Joyce's Ulysses is really just a narrative of one day in Dublin. But we are aware all the time that this insignificant day contains all the ingredients of myth.
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