I am a fine art photographer who’s work is concerned with childhood wonders, using masks, painting, photography and live events to convey my own fantasy, i hope to enrich the mundane life of the adult and encapsulate the imagination of the child.

I first learnt to do papier-mâché when I was about 5. I would run home from school so I could watch Neil Buchannan’s Art Attack! Over the years I have perfected this childish pastime, which now enables me to create large sculpture like masks. The inspiration for my masks also comes from childhood. They are always designed around an artifact of my childhood, many of which live in my loft. Most of these items are toys, books and videos/dvds. Occasionally they are pulled from memories and experiences, remembered and recorded in family photographs. By using common items I hope that people can relate to them and interpret them into something that is personal and understandable for them. For some people this will create a kind of reverie as they become pleasantly lost in their own childhood memories. My works invoke an atmosphere of fantasy and they have an ongoing narrative beyond there time. In childhood, imagination and memory are entwined and inseparable, fuel for the creation of the imaginary and the uncanny. As a child I had a very active assiduous imagination, I mostly played on my own. For in solitude you can not help but experience a limitless existence.

 

The masks plays a pivotal role in my work.  Throughout history, and in the different cultures of the world, people in almost every society have worn masks for a variety of functions and purposes. The reason i am interested in is transformation, to pretend to be someone or something else. I aim to provide the wearer with that means. Role play and dressing up is common in childhood, a mask enables a person to change, to be something or someone they are not and can never be without a little aid from imagination and fantasy.
I then use the masks to create images that depict odd situations between multiple characters wearing masks. I am involved in the creation of my photography at every level from making the artifacts/masks, pre-production and sourcing locations, shooting, acting/modelling, post-production and live element. My photographs are constructed scenes made from many layers of photographs, meaning a single person can interact with the same duplicated figure. Non of the repetitions dominate each other because they are the same person existing in a world created for play. They are cleverly staged, in my childhood locations, many of which still have a magical air about them for me. The photographs are of ordinary poses, influence by an extraordinary situation and location. They are nearly always self portraits. The photographs require planned character positions so that good intermit interaction and eye contact can be created when the images are knitted together. For an image to be successful there also needs to be a focal point or even spread of activity.

A finished image harbours the simplest form of symmetry, Repetition. I have developed a affinity for this device and apply it to enhance the reverie and fantasy of childhood. The repetition in the image creates the uncanny, many people interpret this as eerie and sinister, the uncanny for me is the wondrous danger and mischief of childhood. My work proposes and conjures up a different view of the world for audiences, and encapsulate all that is wondrous, amazing and dangerous about childhood. It enables those who are willing, to see the world in a more fantastical light, reminiscent of the wonderment of childhood.

In exhibition the masks are always displayed with the image. As you examine the image you begin to ask questions relating to its reality and authenticity. Firstly, you question if all the people are the same person, which leads you to question how many masks there are? There is of course only one person and only one mask. The world presented to you looks real, the gestures and interaction looks natural. And so you question the reality. At this point you are consumed by wonder, either because you are lost in the endless possibilities of the world I have presented to you or because you wonder how its done. The people who question the technicality of the photograph are disengaged with wonder.  Through viewing the photographs and experiencing the masks I hope to create them an enduring childhood, even for the adult, and that the experience may act as a catalyst for the rediscovery of the joys of childhood imagination and wonder. The other group just enjoy their own bemusement and reminisce about their childhoods, while trying the mask on. Once the mask has been worn by an individual the image comes alive and transcends that gap between still image and the human populated space. As the person wearing the mask transforms into what they perceive the masks character to be, this transforms and animates the space outside of the photograph, making it hard for my audience to escape the alternative reality. As they and the image oscillate between reality and fantasy, They are forced to question a different reality. The reality of the child.

 

No matter your age delve into the immeasurable pleasure of childhood. Discover a reality enchanted by imagination… enchanted by childhood. There I promise wonder will find you, if you allow your eyes to see it.