I would like to spend more time taking photographs but never seem to get the time or the head space. When I do take photographs now it’s mainly of nature and I manipulate them digitally. I have always been fascinated with the space that exists between reality and fake when it comes to photography. I like to picture what these images will look like framed, large on a wall.
Elements
Birds
“Like the wings of birds fluttering against closed windows, photographs brush vainly against the surface of things“
John Rosenthal
All my photographs of birds are fake. They are edited, stitched together and manufactured. I add birds where there are none, remove ones that do not fit in to the composition and layer skies and backgrounds to suit my aesthetic. They remind me that all of photography is fake.
The Pusuit of Happiness
Religion, philosophy, and human interaction play smaller and smaller roles in contemporary life, we have come to value pleasure, vanity, and conspicuous consumption in their place. Happiness is a recurring theme in my work. The means through which we pursue happiness have changed significantly, but this pursuit still reigns over Western society. No longer satisfied by the truth and comforts of religion and a virtuous life we are encouraged to expect happiness at all costs, but is the contemporary pursuit of happiness doomed to fail?
The American Dream is a concept worshipped by an entire nation which has lost sight of it’s original meaning. Happiness was written into the Declaration of Independence by Jefferson with the phrase ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. However when Jefferson spoke of pursuing happiness, he had nothing vague or private in mind; his was a measured, public happiness.
This series of images, entitled ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ is from a larger body of work shot in the US over several years. I have returned time and again in an attempt to greater understand this culture and it’s people, the legacy of Scottish diaspora and their modern interpretation of the theories and philosophies from the Scottish Enlightenment.
lisafoto's show and tell 