Whilst eerily beautiful the allure of Simone Douglass’ photographic pieces is not its aesthetic surface but the state of question celebrated within the frame. Commenting only on the qualities of her work as they lay on the surface does not give merit to her work as a mode of research; the image we see is not a result but a response to investigation.
In her words a photograph “is an event transformed into an object...a fixing of light”[1]. Photography becomes part of the research process with the production of a still image the documentation of a fixed moment of event.
What attracts me to her work is her use of photography in her exploration of knowledge and the sublime, during which her completed images act as a platform to convey such findings to a wider audience as well as aid in further development. Her photograph does not resolve her research but defines the moment to a point in which to communicate meaning.
Simone Douglass explores the medium of photography beyond representational existence by using it to depict visually subliminal events, which upon display then explores the paradox of knowledge. A tension falls between our belief of photographic certainty and the ambiguous nature of subject; the medium facilitates the understanding and truth of product produced. Without one there is not the other.
Her work is a response to existence and this, beyond aesthetic, is what originally drew me to Simone Douglass. In her own thoughts, photography is “a radical departure in which we see ourselves”[2].
What Douglass captures is the falling of light as it lands heavily around us. The state in which light rests on this moment is immediate, yet through production and display, the events duration is prolonged together with ones proof of existence.
The photograph gives us an awareness of our presence in a greater term. What begins is a collapse of real time and then with this, a continuous shift between what is and what is not. The journey of our existence within this has no beginning and no end and progresses with no clear path. What then is our position within time and space?
[1] Simone Douglass in YouTube video, Simone Douglass Artist Talk (Part 1). Uploaded by Arterealgallery May 2011.
[2] Simone Douglass in YouTube video, The Photographic Universe; Simone Douglass with Michael T. Jones | Parson The New School for Design. Uploaded by thenewschoolnyc April 2011.
