Overview Rendition Tunnel Flags Egg Knots Fence
Fence
Whether conscious or not, we tend to accord photographs a measure of truth. I took this photograph of three fenceposts with barbed wire specifically because of its religious overtones. In contemplating the photograph I realized that both the photograph as a physical object and the story it references for me have much in common. Both are representational, but we accept them almost unthinkingly as truthful representations. To explore this relationship, I began to break down the photographic quality of the image in specific ways. I first made it large, and then converted it to a halftone. The effect of this is that when you view it from a distance it maintains its photographic quality. However, when you approach it, the photographic quality begins breaking down as you start noticing the halftone. When you are at normal reading distance from the photograph, it is difficult see it as a photograph, but instead you see a collection of colored dots.
I decided further to frame the representational nature of both the photograph and its reference by literally framing the photograph and applying a white grid on top of it. This adds several elements that force the viewers to reevaluate what they are looking at. The grid and the photograph compete equally for the foreground, throwing ambiguity into the read of the photograph as image. The grid and frame almost literally reference the ideas of the Renaissance perspective window, throwing another wrinkle into perceived notions of truth. The viewer will most likely not pick up all these references nor interpret it as I did in my act of creating it. But to me that is not important. Upon encountering this piece, it is immediately apparent to the viewer that it is more than a photograph. To the extent that I can pique their speculation to deeper levels of interpretation, determines whether it is successful or not.