Untitled (Verdigris) series, 2021
by David Macgillivray
My practice explores the fundamental elements of a photograph: the rendering of texture and the temperature of light, and how these can be translated into pigment in the photographic print. The spreading of colour and form in the final works reflects my process of moving the camera while exposing an image.
When I make these photographs, I take the device away from my eye and improvise gestures with the camera, while holding it in one hand, to emphasize line and depth. No longer looking through the viewfinder means I become more aware of my body in space. Though my actions can be spontaneous, they are not random; rather, they are composed on the spot. Through motion and the resulting mark-making, I aim to obscure the boundaries between photography and other image-making techniques such as drawing and painting.
Much of this process emerges from my interest in abstract art and its physical presence as an object. To me, abstraction is an antidote both to anxious times and to the proliferation of images today. The main motivations behind this series are to find new image structures, to emphasize the surface of the photograph, and to examine how or what type of communication can result through abstraction. In denying an obvious visual referent, the images refrain from instructing the viewer on how they should be read. They are pictures of themselves
