Questionable Truths

I believe that the photographic truth a camera catches is immediately affected by the photographer’s choices. Each photograph is a fiction/simulacrum created by the photographer, no matter how documentary the intent. I start with the photographic ‘truth’ captured by my camera (which I have manipulated with shutter speed and cropped, and in some cases, digitally reassemble the images to make my prints). I do not intend to deceive but to puzzle, confuse as well as clarify. The final images elicit various degrees of fact and fiction.

Produced in Toronto in the Spring of 2002, Questionable Truths explores our relationship with the cityscape and the (fleeting) perceptions that we have of our buildings, our selves and our privileges. It is not until someone stops to ‘look’ that s/he becomes real. ‘Looking,’ here, is not skimming or glancing at the surface, but reading and absorbing the content of an experience.

Our senses, primarily sight, filter the ‘here’ and ‘now;’ we remember the past and invent the future through mediations and projections that lack sensorial immediacy. We experience each moment, each instant, and then these moments are gone. They are merely fleeting impressions and our lives are made up of a multitude of these fleeting impressions. With Questionable Truths, my intention is to extend and alter our perception of the moment.

Beethoven called his sixth symphony “The Pastoral.” There is a section of the symphony in which he intended to mimic a storm. This music, obviously, does not have the same effect on everyone. Some may think of a battle or some may just experience the sounds. The fact that the music is not always successful in making us think of a storm does not diminish its beauty and impact. I do not intend to compare my photographs to Beethoven, however, I do want people to feel and think while looking at my work. How it makes me feel will not necessarily be synchronistic with what viewers feel. Beethoven’s title, “The Pastoral,” lets us know that the music is about the countryside. Similarly, I give the viewer a clue not the solution. My desire is that they experience something personal.