Present is series of photographs that explores the relationship between absence and presence within photographic portraiture.
By using the technique of digichromatography – the interaction and combination of three photographs of filtered red, green, and blue layers – I create a full spectrum of colour with black and white film negatives. Each portrait is then built-up by scanning the layers, adjusting their opacity levels, and merging them to a final singular image. When these three colours interact with each other they produce a full spectrum image. Each colour layer is taken a week apart, and the portrait sitters are asked to wear the same clothing each sitting as a way to bring cohesiveness to the images.
Considering Vilém Flusser’s theory of the post-history, where objects become surfaces to project our understanding of the lineage of time, this work looks at the relationship between the projections of time and history. These photographs challenge the notion of the photographic portrait hinging upon a single, spontaneous moment. They are, in fact, singular moments fused together; conflating time, the photographer, the sitter, and the intersection of all three.
