Untitled (after Hiroshi Sugimoto's theatre series) Photograph

www.michaelxuereb.com Born in Malta, now lives in London, Michael Xuereb is primarily a contemporary photographer and image maker. Occasionally his work ventures into other mediums such as canvas work, installation and publication.His work can be catagorised into two approaches. These are: pure photographic work and works of an appropriated nature.Most of Xuerebs photographic work are products of itching curiosity, of wondering how it would look if photographed. The only way to find rest is to develop the concept into a visual. Many of the photographic work are images taken is series. These images are either a repetition of the same subject in different conditions, or similar subjects in a common situation. The repetitiveness in the work shows a true craving desire to understand explore and exploit the perception coming from the circumstances photographed.The appropriated work has a similar underlying theme. In each case the initial motive is to extract aesthetic value from the found images or diagrams that were primarily designed, drawn or photographed for functional purposes. Just as the source images, the titles are appropriated as well. The majority of the titles of Xuerebs recent work are borrowed from existing sources. However, what these sources are, is never mentioned. This is because this would add an element to the work, and its function is exactly the contrary. In the case of Michaels work, the title is a tool to encourage the viewer to distance him or herself from what is depicted in the image - this is only the first stage of the visual experience. After this, the viewer should re-approach the images with a subjective eye to reflect on the subjects true context. For example, The image titled 'The land was drained and the boggy ground', which can be found here, has a simple intent. It is to create a stimulation/sensation as it welcomes viewers to come up with their own personal statement of how the depiction of spider-man makes them feel. The image creates an indirect cultural implication or implications, while at the same time tries to distant the viewer away from the meaning of what they are seeing. The image of spider-man is not a praise to spider-man. It shows spider-man and suggests to viewers to take a step back, to determine what a visual representation of spider-man means to them, and why it means what it means.