Particle Matter 2.5
These photographs were made in the midst of ice, fog and inversion, a natural and manmade regional weather phenomenon in which beauty and toxicity combine. The singular perspective conveys the intimacy of isolated encounters with the consequences of progress and recession. Secreted within a small circle of vision, the blanketing silence obscures the urban realities, the visual and auditory noise, the temporary evidences and enduring artifacts of “progress”.
The work is not pure documentary imagery, but rather uses current digital technology to access new modes of representation. The combination of film and digital imaging opens the possibility for fine detail and texture in a single photograph. PM 2.5., is named for the measurement of air born particles that lodge in the lungs; causing health problems such as respiratory illnesses and asthma, immunological disorders, heart disease and perhaps even cancer. The rhythmic digital textures applied to these photographs are an expressive gesture, like many photographers have used grain, focus and depth of field. I build a complex architecture of halftone bitmap layers to reference the scientific designation Particle Matter 2.5. I developed this technique and aesthetic stylization to function as a visual metaphor for the damaging toxicity in the air.