Artist statement

As we go through life we develop visual understanding of the world around us by analyzing what we see.  It is often easiest to categorize what we see by packaging it into neat, understandable categories.  For instance the term “house,” conjures up very specific imagery for each individual.  By doing this, we have developed a programmed understanding for the world and in so doing have closed our eyes to the potential of making new readings of the fascinating world we live in.  Instead of going through life understanding the world through established ideas, I promote the idea of life spent looking for instances where our preconceived notions are tested.

Through the camera, I have captured images that exhibit deviations from familiar preconceptions that I grew up with.  These works explore this notion in 3 categories: Culture, Composition, and Detail.  The Cultural shots are taken from the perspective of someone who has grown up in a Western culture.  They hold an entirely different meaning for someone who grew up in the culture that is being studied.  Images in the Composition category examine the world as a construct of light, texture, color, line, mass, etc.  By framing the scenes and objects these compositions are able to be considered in an abstract manner.  By looking at an object or scene in Detail we can relearn what we know about our surroundings.  The detail has the ability to capture ideas and an understanding of an object while consciously ignoring the whole which is what we associate our generalizations with.  It continues to astound me how much can be said and understood by exploring a detail.

There is an rich world around us, all we need to do is to see it.

Copyright © 2004 Brent Young

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