+/-

Light and time can be seen as the two finite elements or scientific structures that when captured create what we know as photography. These two components exist at photography’s most basic level and therefore are the fundamental DNA of what the medium is known to be. The presence of colour in this equation act either as an inclusion, or as a potential interruption. This creates an internal dialogue and conversation within the medium and in doing so opens up a plethora of possibilities. Photography is known as a tool to document, but how can colour be documented? This installation and series of images investigate this very question and presents its finding by using colour theory and abstraction.

The digital photographs in this exhibition use light and time to document colour while conducting an exploration of additive (+) and subtractive (-) colour systems. The additive colour system is a method of colour creation that uses combinations of Red, Green, and Blue, which are generally employed in printing processes and the intermixing of materials. While the subtractive colour system uses combinations of Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow, and is done via the mixing of light. The images shown here display combinations from both of these systems. This is meant to display the diversity of the possibilities that the documentation and presentation of colour in photography possesses. These become direct and honest documentations of colour by using only light and time to create the eventual result.

This series of images not only displays the use of colour in which it is used to break down the elements of photography, but it also uses abstraction with a focus on form to continue these ideas further. The abstraction used here is presented in such a minimal way that the images do not immediately read as photographic; they are much more recognizable as a digital rendering or painting. +/- pushes the conversation of where photography, as an art form, is situated in the material context. The viewer is challenged, as the form and subject of the work is not immediately recognizable or categorizable, thus opening up responses to the work on a more affective level. These reactions are the true emphasis of this series, as it expands on and creates new conversations about photography while at the same time employing its age-old traditions and techniques of simply capturing light and time.