Paul Gravett
In my photography, I explore intersections of photography and contemporary art where light and colour become the subject matter to reveal rich palettes, patterns, layers, and textures. Using different techniques, my work starts in the camera as I look beyond the object to explore unseen elements and abstractions of the visceral world. Reality recedes and light, colour and pattern create fragments of mysterious ‘otherness’ in these painterly images.
Recent awards include Budapest International Foto Awards (Gold and 2nd Place), Tokyo International Foto Awards (Gold), Minimalist Photography Awards (2021), International Photography Awards (2019, 2020), International Color Award (2021), bronze medal from ThePhotograph, and Wideworld Photography Gala Awards (17th Pollux Awards, winners of abstract series and for digital manipulation and collage series). Colour Study #6 was awarded the 2020 Gracie Award, “Best in Show” from the International Society of Experimental Artists.
Each Colour Study originates with photographs of papers and films, layered three to five deep on a stack of glass shelves. With the camera positioned directly above, each layer is photographed in focus as the others fall outside of the field of focus. The images are layered and blended to create abstractions that reference contemporary art, including pointillism, colour fields, opaque and transparent layers, collage, and textures. The experimental technique remains true to the original photographs as nothing is added or subtracted in the process - everything that makes up the final image originates from the original set of photographs.
Starting with 100+-year-old photographs of anonymous subjects, the Reappearance series uses multiple exposure, intentional camera motion, and layering to create new portraits that are entirely unpredictable and startling. With these techniques, I explore the intersection of photography and contemporary art to create evocative, painterly likenesses of personality and mood. Dust, tears, and blemishes that mark the original photographs add rich, abstract elements. Nothing is added or subtracted during the 'development' process. Emerging through the thick veil of time, the reappearance of the sitter is the survival of memory.a
