Jarrett Murphy

Artist Statement

These photographs reject and embrace one of my greatest disappointments—that with the deluge of commercial imagery, what was once extraordinary has become common. As commerce increasingly co-opts and embellishes images of natural beauty, it simultaneously exalts that beauty and subverts it. To draw people back to reality, it must become hyper-real. I have chosen a process that allows standard subjects to be fantastical, for through long exposure I create single images that appear to freeze single moments but actually represent multiple moments. The finished photograph allows me to create the illusory reality that is, in part, a fantasy.

These images juxtapose the human and the natural. Each image records the duality of man’s presence and absence, as nature is being constructed around and by civilization. To record these landscapes impacted by but vacant of human presence, I impose my own presence while excluding myself and my influence from the scene.

Jarrett Murphy’s Website