In 1983/84 I went to China 
I stayed 4 months and shot around 1200 frames on 2 cameras.
In 2025 I returned and stayed 3 months
I collected around 10,000 items, visual files of stills, live images, videos, screen shots and more on my iPhone.

 

Before digital technology evolved our equipment dictated if our images were still or moving, now in the 21st century this is not the case, we can shoot a ‘live’ photo with the approach of a photographer but obtain a short piece of moving image. I find this makes me question what can be considered as ‘photography’ today.  Is it that it MUST be still or is it that photography is more of an approach to a subject, a thought, a concept? This attitude is surely very different to the tactics of a film maker. To take this a step further we also shoot and consume images more and faster. I wonder how we have adapted to this vastly increased amount of visual information?

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I am interested in challenging the conventions of traditional viewing experiences, deconstructing our habits of looking, creating different experiences and seeing what is left in the minds eye.  As a photographer I have always been interested in working with multiple images and finding alternative ways to present them, to evoke different reactions and understandings from viewers. Back in the 80's this lead to creating sculptural works with photographs, now in the 21st century we have many more options as to how we might present images.  

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This set of work began with archival images I shot in China in the early 80's but I also returned to China in 2025 and of course amassed a lot more images. I am currently working with making screen pieces with all the China material and starting to experiment with using projections to create immersive environments.

Some of the screen works are more like short films as they have a spoken narrative, a little like travelogues perhaps, others are fast moving documentations of places that I visited. Some mix images from the 80's with images from my recent trip, others are just my roving eye as I travelled in 2025. They are experiments in looking and perception combined with a habit of documenting my surroundings.  Rather than giving time to study an image it is more like the experience of walking down a street noticing a multitude of things, remembering a few and forgetting a lot, but coming away with a sense of a place.

 

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