Artist Statement

My present collages are born out of my obsession with taking photographs, collecting found ephemera (old photographs,

antique documents, hand-written correspondence and notes, foreign envelopes, receipts, postage stamps, x-rays,

cannibalized books, and Victorian etchings) and years of experimenting with multiple exposures in camera.

When the work is going well, wading through my collections, it’s like going back in time, or more accurately being in an

absence of time. The whole process becomes a somewhat guided form of visual alchemy. I love seeing the beauty in decay

and evidence of the passage of time. Stains, tears, cracks, faded images, folds, smudges, scratches and burns. I get a thrill

at seeing context develop like visual poetry. People’s secrets and stories come alive. I try to forget all I know as I walk the

thin line between being literal and contrived with letting go to a natural process that leaves questions unanswered and

relationships implied.

Traditional photographic processes such as over-printing, multiple exposures and sandwiched film can now be achieved in the

digital darkroom. I find the computer an amazing fine art tool, but can often breed visual cliche’s and program driven

laziness. I leave as much as I can alone and avoid «tricks» and filters in influencing the quality of an image.

The original prints are output digitally using gallery quality peizography with archival pigment UV inks (100+ years) on 100%

cotton, acid-free watercolour paper in signed limited editions of 5 to 50.