[Persona]

Having been involved in the Art world in one way or another for the past 30 years, I realize the importance of individual style that is necessary in order to achieve any kind of recognition. People like to identify an artist with their art, so if we create images in every genre, using as many different techniques as possible, we start to appear too irresolute and non-committal. Therefore, we develop an Artist Persona through which the world can identify and critique us.

I developed my Painting Persona by the third year of my studies at art school. It was based primarily on the early influences in my life. Dada and Surrealist anti-values combined with a love of early renaissance narrative painting formed the foundations of a style that was to remain until my last exhibition. Furthermore, I was academically active during the peak of a period of criticism that rejected the idea of originality and encouraged a re-working of history involving appropriation and demystification. My Painting Persona was all about content and the visual images were just an illustration of my theory.

However, my approach to photography is different. Firstly, I'm not concerned with originality (or the lack of it) because no two images can ever be identical, no matter how similar they appear. Great photographs are more about form than content. Though, we should always keep in mind that Form exists within Content, and vice versa. My Photography Persona is yet to rear it's ugly head. I've been taking this medium seriously for around nine months and it took me many years to develop as a painter, so I don't expect any sudden revelations and I am content to leave my style to find itself. There are, however, three formal areas in photography that I find myself drawn to: macro, urban exploration and night shots.

Macro attracts me the most because we can never see the true result of our shoot until we enlarge it on the computer screen. So, it's left almost one hundred percent to chance. This is because the depth and focal area of a macro shot is so narrow that moving it even slightly will create a different image. I love the fact that I can take hundreds of shots of the same object and each one will show a unique aspect. I own a 60mm macro lens and a macro convertor which fits on to my larger lenses (allowing me to distance myself further).

My first serious photos were of narrow passages around the city of Sendai. I'm still greatly attracted to this kind of shot. There is a surreal quality to an empty hall and a combined mood of expectation and doom simultaneously.

The low noise on my camera at at high ISO makes it ideal for taking night shots. An isolated area of light surrounded by darkness creates an extremely foreboding atmosphere. 

I have no idea where photography is taking me at this stage, but I look forward to the gradual emergence of my Photography Persona.