Because Black

This collection is literally and metaphorically a series of photographs in which an inability to fully illuminate a given subject is expressed.  An admission that the viewer’s own imagination is respected and required.  

We feel as though we’re given too much data. 

As a visual artist looking for sanctuary from the endless onslaught of information I started to see the colour black in photography as a metaphor for the space I felt I needed. 

A place unreachable and calm where data has no register. A place where there are no answers because there are no questions.  

Transcendental. 

I don’t want to fill up every last space with detail. I like not spiralling out of control to the edges of the picture plane.

We naturally want to hide from the noise. ‘Caution! Vehicle reversing’ from the street outside;  I’m at my kitchen table but caution is subtly triggered. Thousands upon thousands of ‘space-invaders’ every day. On line and on our nerves. 

So I find myself wanting to share ‘nothing’. As a way of respecting my own privacy but also as a gift. I can’t find a better way to do this as a visual artist than to drape my artworks in lots and lots of quiet, still, depthless, photographic black.

Every pixel is as alive as those forming the most intricate detail. An apparent emptiness replete with information. A visual recalcitrance. A reticence. Withholding for the sake of silence. A private and dignified peace and quiet.

What is meditation if it’s not an attempt to enter into this emptiness for even a short time?