Jonathan Bagby
Artist Statement
For me, photography is a form of collecting, cataloging, and presenting phenomena. I am drawn to the way pictures can be both a pointing device with indexical qualities while at the same time being a container capable of more poetic intentions. I am interested in the way images are a constant battle between truth, fiction, conjecture, and perception. My work is a continued questioning of photography’s ability to be a site of inquiry into how language, memory, and culture operate. I have no reverence for a traditional photographic vision, meaning the images I make quickly shift in approach, aesthetic, and demeanor. This is a decision made with the intention of exploiting image tropes beyond their typical final form while still relying on some of their aesthetic qualities for embedded visual effects and original signifiers. To this end, I purposefully borrow stylistic cues from a variety of genres such as still-life, landscape, scientific documentation, amateur snapshots, and commercial imagery in order to bring into question the relationship of the photograph to broader cultural contexts. The act of staging these photographs in a way that mimics discursive pursuits results in pictures that are capable of intersecting typically more visually elusive esoterics such as perception, beauty, riddles, and myth.
Jonathan Bagby | Eugene, OR