Geoffrey H. Short

Towards Another Theory

October 4 - 28, 2012

Geoffrey H. Short focuses on explosions as representations of the fraught relationship between risk and pleasure, or as he explains it, "between terror and the sublime." Short's photographs of professionally detonated fossil fuels and gunpowder in his "Towards Another Theory" series--made by film industry special effects technicians--entice the viewer with their awe-inspiring forms, yet the breathtaking clouds of smoke and fire are the direct result of violent and potentially destructive outbursts. By making use of highly volatile materials like gasoline and gunpowder at such a large scale, Short takes more than a few monumental risks in his quest for the sublime image, but with unquestionably transcendent results. 

Geoffrey H. Short is a photographer based in Auckland, New Zealand. Beginning in the 1980s, he worked as a documentary photographer before specializing in still photography for television and film. In 2010 he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. Short has exhibited in galleries throughout New Zealand and at the Galerie Florence Moll in Paris, and he was recently included in Photolucida's 2011 Critical Mass exhibition, "Contents: Love, Anxiety, Happiness & Everything Else" curated by Darius Himes, that traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest.