Bex Singleton
Bex Singleton | Right There, Right Then
III 70 x 42 cm
When we look at portraits of people, we are encouraged to imagine who they are, what they are like, and how we might find them if they were to interact with us. We are ultimately urged to form an opinion of the person presented to us, without knowing anything except visual information, and perhaps a name or caption. We are often told that the portrait is only interesting because of the person that it represents, and not because of the vision or process of the photographer or painter who created it.
Bex Singleton's practice challenges what it means to photograph a person. Her current body of work relies entirely on the physical presence of the subject to create a photogram, taking Bathes suggestion that ‘Every photograph is a certificate of presence.' to its most literal interpretation. Far from claiming to present an authentic representation, she records their body in a certain place at a certain time. Despite the lack of conventional visual indicators that are usually attributed to photographs of people, she encourages the viewer to imagine the characteristics of the subject and construct meaning without access to received modes of signification.
In reaction to the plethora of digitally manipulated and enhanced images of people, she has returned to the most basic of photographic processes: the photogram. Echoing the explorations of Man Ray and Floris Neususs, and herself returning to an exploration of the thin line between photography, painting and fine art.