I created these photographs to experiment and diverge from the confines of my previous street photography endeavors. To work in a manner aimed at emulating the spontaneity that often strikes me while wandering and capturing scenes. However, my intention was to veer towards subjects with less immediate clarity, ones that invite viewers to pause and question what they're seeing, urging them to take a closer look. Some of the imagery may initially appear familiar, but it's presented in a way that induces a moment of reorientation, encouraging reflection rather than a mere literal observation of the scene. This approach aims to convey the essence of a moment rather than its exact physical details.
I began by experimenting with in-camera motion blur, an effect I found intriguing and effective in others work, however, when used excessively or formulaically, it wound up becoming gimmicky. Instead, I turned my focus towards leveraging the unique field of view offered by my lens, honing in on textures and providing minimal contextual information. Editing for specific color hues and saturations that didn’t feel unnatural but pushed the images into extreme and cohesive ranges, as well as pushing contrast and clarity, past what I relegated myself to work in previously, further removed the photos from their traditionally descriptive photographic base.
The work exists to force the audience to try and interpret what the object captured is. To debate what, if anything, has been manipulated. And in particular in a world now contentious with AI art, to establish an intentional and emotional connection in the work beyond what AI generation can create, seeing as the work bears similarity to the non representative images familiar with established AI creation. The work is imbued with personal meaning from me as an artist, but is loose enough for the viewer to find their own emotional and personal resonance, drawing upon their memories and experiences to form a unique connection with the images.
-Erik Smits, December 2023
