Artist’s Statement - 2006

My work is concerned with photography and film’s relationship to reality and the impact that this complex interaction has on perception.  My practice explores the juxtaposition and amalgamation of reality and fiction with particular reference to remembered films.

I am interested in the way in which reality is embellished and distorted by film.  My current work explores the nostalgic experience of reality perpetuated by constant reminders of prior experiences particularly through the recollection of films.   It is also concerned with the way we ‘slip into character’ in scenarios that remind us of particular films, stories etc. In this I am particularly interested in examining film characters who play characters within a film – such as Madeleine in ‘Vertigo’ or less explicitly Catherine in ‘Jules et Jim’. 

I am also constructing photographic ‘perepeteia’ (the moment in a narrative when everything hangs in the balance) and I am interested in the established conventions of narrative that mean that a single image can lead us to presume certain outcomes – and how to disrupt these expectations.

The work is political but I am making comment rather than criticism.  I am excited by the playful possibilities created by the meshing of reality and fiction, both for reality and fiction.