altered images
Infinite Boundaries(detail), 2008, altered photocollage
I've been working on an on-going series of altered photos. They are made up of old photographs I took about 3-4 years ago. The source photos for this series are those that came out blurry due to camera shake or bad focusing. What I saw then as a negative, I've come to embrace as a creative opportunity.
I own several books by the designer, David Carson, whose work I truly admire. Carson was responsible for the often hard to read 90's music magazine Ray Gun. Anyway, I like how Carson will incorporate very odd-angled and cropped, out-of-focus photos into his designs. Browsing through a couple of Carson's books gave me the inspiration to seek out those old photos I had and do something with them.
I took a bunch up to the studio and started messing around with the surfaces with fine steel wool, sandpaper, and a wire brush. I found that I really liked the layers of colors that lie just below the surfaces. I 'erased' some completely while others I selectively abraded, then painted, and otherwise altered.
Burnout(sky), 2008, altered photocollage
Burnout(rooflines), 2008, altered photocollage
...and the sound goes BOOM!, 2008, altered photocollage