Seen and Seen Again

acrylic on canvas, 2014

    The focus of tourist photos is generally on those aspects of a place that are deemed worthy of tourism; a monument, place or object becomes depicted over multiple times with the composites within this space creating the difference, these images are shared through digital media and repeated, copied and reproduced.

    Working from digitally layered images, I want to translate “tourist” images of multiple sources into a single image through a painting. Referencing the article “In Defense of the Poor Image” by Hito Steyerl, I’m interested in the concept of image sharing as a way to retrieve the power of the image and to equalize the separate classes–poor images are “images that can be made and seen by the many.” Using some of my own travel photos in combination with those found on the internet, I create an image that coalesces separate times, perspectives and sources into a single image, unified through the painted medium.