Artist Statement
Being a representation of a single moment bound in a rectangle, a photograph is intrinsically limited.
The advent of digital photography has added an airless quality to the medium, first by the sterility inherent in the quality of the images produced by the digital camera and second by enabling an ex post facto striving for some imagined perfection that destroys authenticity.
I am motivated by rebellion against the intrinsic limitations of the photograph and the corruptions introduced to the medium by digital tools. It is with jealousy for the painter’s use of texture, her ability to blend and bend moments and scene elements, and her penchant for creating a feeling of perception that I pick up a camera.
Control is an illusion, so I invite serendipity when I work. Photographs that are merely a literal representation don’t give the viewer anything to participate in, so I try to make photographs that create a space for the viewer to fill with their imagination and curiosity.
My photographs seek to capture some aspect of feminine beauty and strength, with a sensation of the mystery and confusion inherent in subjectivity and in dreams. I create them using film cameras, special lenses, lens-mounted filters, multiple exposures, physical or chemical alteration of the film, and any other non-digital techniques at my disposal.
In this age of ubiquitous digital tools and social media, there are too many people calling themselves “artists” and “creatives” who think that creating “content” is the same as creativity. Content is merely something that is contained. I strive to create work without respect to containers.
Biography
Born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1973, Philip Weller moved to Houston, Texas at the age of five. He resides there still with his wife and three sons.