Controlled Abstraction: Space and Time

As carbon based life, humanity was created by the same elements and matter that created the cosmos which we are surrounded by and immersed in. Our vast complex universe made up of an estimated one hundred billion galaxies is all made of the same matter as our own galaxy and us individually. In previous research I explored the fact that  all cultures have had the four classical elements of Earth, Wind Water and Fire. Alongside these 4 elements is the concept of Aether or The Void. Which simply put is what’s beyond earth and the space beyond space. For previous civilizations and cultures this was a way of trying to explain the unexplained and intangible ranging from the darkness of space to gravity and how air moves. While science now explains much of this the idea of the untouched and unseen reaches of the great void still resonates. And the search to see farther and understand better how something that creates us can also create alien and unknown environments light years away interests me. So by continuing my original practice of using traditional photography to explore new experimental techniques I create visions of the unseen and unexplored. 

The second core concept of this work is Time. The idea of seeing light emitting from a star that is a million years old has always interested me, we seem to see far in the past but not the future. At any moment that light could vanish and whatever happened to it happened a million years ago. We push to see deeper and farther into space for our future but all we are seeing is something else’s past. Photography is a tool of time - the functions and dynamics of photography are ruled and governed by time, and within a measurement of time freezes a particular moment that will never change, at least not in that photograph. So I find it appropriate to use a time based tool to create images using antiquated photographic techniques and processes, to capture in a fraction of a second images suggestive of the infinite time of space.