To See the City

Digital cameras may be a relatively new artistic tool, but the tradition of photomontage, practised by artists for decades, is at the essence of myndigital image-making. The computer and its software are the canvas, brush and glue of the digital artist who cuts, pastes, and reassembles pixels in a methodology analogous to that utilized by collage artists to combine found ephemera in their artworks. Photomontage, also known as photocollage, is not a new means of expression; it has been used by artists since the mid-nineteenth century, most notably by Oscar Gustav Rejlander and Henry Peach Robinson, who combined up to 40 images in one print to convey their allegorical stories. 


This collection of art references the experience of living in an urban environment. Some compositions, like Downtown with Daffodils seek to interpret the physical sensation of living in the city. By allowing the images to merge one into the other, the multi-sensory impact of walking down a busy city street is evoked. Fragments of traffic noise and voices overlay the passing texture of buildings, reflections, urban gardens and window displays. The memory is not of one concrete moment but of a continuum of moments, digitally deconstructed from lived experience captured by the camera.

Photographic elements are layered with consideration to their formal qualities. In this image I’ve attempted to digitally construct a psychological space.
	
		
			
		
		
Workday (Laundry)
			
		
		
History Shows
			
		
		
Robson Street Vancouver
			
		
		
Walking in the West End
			
		
		
Dreaming of Sleep
			
		
		
Waiting in the Rain
			
		
		
Something was Said
			
		
		
On Wednesday it Rained
			
		
		
Guggenheim, Bilbao
			
		
		
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
			
		
		
Japanese Garden
		
		
	
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