ELAINE RATHIE - photographer
ARTIST STATEMENT
History, identity and the communality of .memory are issues I address in my work. These images - fragments of our urban and industrial environment - document the mortality of the moment. They are about acknowledging the extraordinary in the ordinary.
My years of working first as a sculptor, and then as a painter, have influenced how I see through the lens. Past photographers such as Alfred Steiglitz, Edward Weston and Walker Evans have played an enormous role in shaping my vision, while contemporaries such as Jeff Wall and Roy Arden constantly challenge and expand my understanding.
My approach to photography is simple and direct. I do not stage or rearrange any portion of the situation before I shoot. I work with available light only and avoid the use of any filters that may enhance or alter the subject. Once the shot has been taken, I do not crop or alter the image. Because I consider, my work to be an inventory, a personal photographic archive of the transitory, simply record the world as it exists.
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