In small fires, I use one of the oldest photographic techniques, the cyanotype, to give voice to contemporary concerns. As in previous bodies of works, I‘ve taken ordinary elements and transformed them into extraordinary suggestions. I’ve taken the literal shadow, captured in the cyanotype process, and turned it into a figurative shadow – a suggestion of the unconscious and unspoken.
Difficulties and confusions are made explicit. Gentle tendrils of grapevine speak out “thanks for nothing” or “no no no”. The words are plaintive, confusing and fallible. In Headless, 2004 a headless torso holds a head at arms length.
There is a tension in the works, as the title of the series suggests, small fires can become big fires or they can go out. They are small and intense – dangerous yet fragile.