in Absence
2004
lambda prints
in Absence highlights lifeless interiors shaped by the constructs of human behaviours. Open to investigative interpretation, the objects become traces; clues to hidden narratives and prior events. The lack of subjects, themes and dramas, suggests some type of criminal activity; emphasising the role of viewer as detective, forced to reconstruct behaviour, motivation and actions. This photographic work brings into question what we are oblivious to everyday, that is, an emphasis on the conventional and archetypal. It forces us to reflect upon the environments in which we occupy and aims to remind us that even though a photograph typically records what is seen it can mystify and question what is not. These interiors were discovered in classrooms, change rooms and storage rooms of a school environment.