#Rockstar - Limited Edition 3 of 5 Artwork

My artwork examines the mutating role of photographs in people’s lives as the world goes digital and on social media. Historically, the visual image has been a primary vehicle for societies and people to collect and preserve memories. An iconic image, such as that of earth rise from the moon, or the fall of the Berlin Wall, captured not only that instant in time, but became representative of that story, era and indeed, that time in history for posterity. The role of the photograph was unique - photographs became the way we remember the world and the stories associated with them have become our history. Now, with the proliferation of social media, and 'democratisation' of news and reporting, the central role played by photographs as documentation of history has fundamentally changed. The main purpose of images has become that of creating and propagating online identities and viewpoints. Images are taken, shared on social media to reflect a certain viewpoint, and then forgotten as a new 'trending' topic takes over. I like to explore this change in the role of photography by juxtaposing different images, media, objects and colour to create different works of art. My experiences as an artist, photographer, documentary filmmaker and a researcher on the visual representation of reality make me continually aware of both the role and the power of visual images and influence and inform my artwork.