Japanese water-based woodcut on Awagami Murakamo Kozo Select Inkjet Paper (40 g), edition 5/5 (+ artist proof), Size 20.5 cm x 29.5 cm, 2025
The series of portraits are based on photographic documentation of my site-specific installation “Farewells” (2017) which consisted of large-scale cut-out photographs of travelers bent and folded in the third dimension. Groups of cardboard sculptures had transformed a large space under railway arches into a station where people in transit meet. The initial low-quality photographs that were used for the sculptures were taken on public transport using my iPhone camera. Most travelers were deeply immersed in their mobile phone and their contents, and I was intrigued by how the cutouts and folds changed their physiognomy and facial expressions.
When I looked through the documentation, I was intrigued by how photographing the photographic sculptures from certain angles and with light creating strong shadows further separated them from the original image which was a low-quality mobile phone picture. The strong light pronounced the razor-sharp cut outlines and the abstract quality of the image. In this sense, the photographic process can amplify the emotional quality of the image despite becoming further and further removed.
