Thomas Newton
St Joseph's College
METAPHYSICAL
Photomedia
Photographic print paper
My body of work is a series of photographs studying the metaphysical. This branch of philosophy explores the fundamental nature of our reality as humans, especially the relationships between mind and matter, and potentiality and actuality. I took inspiration from dreams as they are examples of our minds exploring potentiality and ignoring actuality, allowing us to briefly experience a world of transcendency and imagination. To create this work I took photographs of my classmates through various water-based filters to distort their images, much like what happens in a dream, therefore exploring the metaphysical.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the artist Laurence Demaison.
Marker's Commentary
This body of work demonstrated a mature articulation of the concept in which photography is understood as being a penetrating record of people as well as a viewpoint that manipulates the audience’s perception. This body of work knowingly responds to photographic image making in the age of digital photography, as it evokes analogue qualities in terms of its finish, resolution and manipulation of image. The tightly cropped images, shallow depth of field and viewpoints through glass combine to present a dramatic series of images that extend the way we view the subject. The title supports the investigation towards deeper truths in the image and to examine what can be seen and how this body of work interprets the subject beyond the ’physical’ appearance of the subject. Its expertise in camera craft, strategic treatment of the subject and black and white treatment of the images inhabits a deeper sense of reality and demonstrates a highly developed understanding that is both expansive and technically assured.