The Strange Case of Achilles and the Tortoise, 2020

Prior to the Covid19 pandemic, I had grown increasingly convinced that Photography had reached a singularity of sorts. Image making had become inextricably aligned to Technocapitalist doctrine: it was all about constant upgrading & optimisation (the latest lens, the latest camera, the latest app, the latest operating system), to the detriment of the creative process.

I believe this has been responsible for steadily exacerbating a well know neurological phenomenon that occurs with abundance of choice: when people are overwhelmed by choice, they choose nothing in the end.

For better or worse, the Covid-19 pandemic introduced circumstantial constrains to our decision-making. I embraced these early on and used them to redefine my relationship with the medium.

The abstract artworks in this gallery were produced by overlaying a variety of recent and older expendable materials I gathered from my photographic darkroom, namely test prints, contact prints, darkroom masks and other supplies I used or created to print previous works.

These materials, as by-products of the printing process, would normally be discarded. However, in this context they were appropriated and given a new lease of life, in what represents a constrain-free, uninhibited process, liberated from any kind of technological apparatus.

This is in stark contrast to the second set of works displayed in this gallery and whose production was heavy influenced and constrained by citywide lockdowns, mobility restrictions and access to photographic materials and supplies.These  images were  produced during three distinct pandemics in China over a period of 12 years (including Covid19) and were  shot at rush hour (usually early in the morning or late afternoon) from the top of the buildings I was living in.