Photography is my medium. It is also my subject. Since my first exhibition in 1980, I have been questioning how photography works and doesn’t work. In many of my projects I have appropriated existing imagery, delved into various archives of photographic and/or cinematic practices, and/or photographed (and filmed) myself to examine these issues. In some ways I use myself as a surrogate for photography; by focusing the camera on myself I am, in fact, turning the spectator’s gaze upon the very nature of photography. In an absurd fashion, my aim is to somehow “become” photography.

With “On Photography," I focus my attention on the figure and the words of the critic. Borrowing its title from Susan Sontag’s seminal collection of essays from 1977, this series is a collection of quintessential quotes by iconic critics accompanied by altered historical portraits originally made by established photographers. By occupying the portraits, I have “become” 30 critics and, in so doing, twisted the meaning of their quotations to both illuminate and give substance to my own work. 

“On Photography” is made up of 30 35.5x28 cm framed inkjet prints and a 9-minute HD video. The project exploits the decontextualized words of the various critics to construct my own manifesto - one that both justifies my approach and suggests that, if an extract of a critic’s writing can be so easily co-opted, we must reconsider the authority of the quote in the absence of context.