Manifesto / Artist statement
This project lasted two years. I began taking and publishing short videos and photography in 2013 till 2015. I would take the photos during my everyday life and upload them chronologically, as soon as possible, to create a sense of immediacy that felt very new at the time.
I started at 19. I had just returned back to Perth after studying film in Sydney. I was disenfranchised with my education due to its focus on technical ability for commercial (largely advertising) intent and the industry as a whole, with its reliance on government grants, aimed at a mass market. I struggled to define a future for myself that I would be happy with, which contributed to a depression I was dealing with at the time.
The Perth landscape I was witnessing was post-mining boom, focused on quick expansion due to a large population influx rather than any sense of aesthetic beauty or signifying place. I saw Perth as reflecting visions of places elsewhere, with no unique ideas of its own. There was no longer the Brutalism of the 70s and 80s, instead a focus on reflecting the commercial wants of its populace, influenced by symbols of desires overseas. A post-car city. An expanding urban sprawl. Monotonous car parks, malls, roads, streetlights, fast food chains, fluorescent lighting, suburbs without distinction. Nature abstracted from its origins. A changing city, with no real consideration of a future. A growing sense of isolation.
I was beginning to develop a sense of my own politics, that weren’t reflected in public discourse at the time. Tony Abbot had just been elected. There was a shift to a populist right that increasingly led to a larger sense of my own disenfranchisement.
The expectation within contemporary art photography was to utilize high quality camera equipment and post processing in order for works to be considered of artistic merit.
I saw the camera phone as being a truly democratic medium due to its newly ubiquitous availability to the average person. This signified a paradigm shift within a photography industry previously defined by its financial barriers.
I used the “lowbrow” medium of phone camera to create creative photography as an opposition to these expectations. I appreciated the unique digital artifacts and textures of my lower quality phone camera and weaved these into my work.
Here was a tool that allowed me to capture, with such impulsive immediacy, moments of perceived beauty to then share and publish, usually on the day of. This allowed me to create photography that reflected my personal vision of the world, document my life and share my insight into my perceived dystopian environment whilst simultaneously appreciating the unique qualities of this new medium.
Capturing beauty in the moment, where I stood, no post processing/editing. Reflecting my personal eye/vision. Documenting my life in my environment.
All images captured on a hand-me-down iPhone 4S camera.
