TIME LINES
My second, ongoing body of work, ‘Time Lines,’ first emerged in early 2021. In this series, I’m not looking to capture a photograph of anything that exists. But instead, use the available light around me to create abstract artwork.
Created mostly at night, I use any available light sources I can. Not as a means to light up a subject or scene, but instead as the subject itself. Whether it be a streetlight, a tree decorated in Christmas lights, or the sunlight bouncing off the moon, if it’s sending out a steady stream of photons towards my camera, I use them to create ’Time Lines’.
Using extended periods of time and unusual camera movements, I stretch normally static, unmoving light sources into colorful brushstrokes that make up an artwork. Revealing just how differently some of the evening light sources around us give off light. With some sending a constant stream of light unchanging in its flow. While other newer LED lights pulsate, flickering on and off at hundreds, usually thousands of times per second. Each packet of photons lasts fractions of a second, which when stretched across my sensor, creates intricate dotted and dashed lines.
Since practicing ‘Time Lines,’ walking around at night, is a brand new experience for me. Wondering what every single light source would look like when stretched over time. Whether it’s a store’s neon sign, a single light bulb illuminating an empty parking lot in Costa Rica, or the spectacular works of art set up at London’s largest light show, Christmas at Kew. Everywhere I go lies the opportunity to create something new.
With no intended orientation or hidden meaning behind a piece, viewers are encouraged to, if possible, rotate the artwork viewing it from all four orientations. As well as viewing it in diptych, next to a second mirrored reflection artwork. Whenever possible, rotating and swapping their positions to reveal new compositions.
While not all artworks or orientations will resonate with everyone. Many of my favorite artworks I initially ignored as single artworks, yet once viewed in diptych, they suddenly sprang to life. A reminder, at least for me, to continually experiment. Trying to see the world from as many different perspectives as possible. Never knowing when something mundane will transform into something new, useful, or beautiful.
