There is a democracy in the images captured by this photographer. People, places, situations, events and objects are given equal consideration and equal value. He appears to want to capture all that makes up his immediate world, from the intimate to the grand, from the institutional to the domestic, and beyond.
Professor Carole Shepheard
Elam School of Fine Arts
The University of Auckland
Dr Evan John Reece
Born Hawera, Taranaki 1962.
Began photographic career as B+W printer in Auckland, New Zealand in 1982.
Since that time have worked as a newspaper, expedition and freelance photographer as well as lecturing in photography in both New Zealand and the U.S.
Exhibited in New Zealand, Canada and U.S. galleries and published in New Zealand and America.
Awarded Doctorate of Fine Art (Photography) from University of Auckland 2005.
Currently living and working in Auckland as photographer, lecturer and researcher.
Artist Statement
My research involves an investigation into what is 'self', what is our inner understanding of who and what we are and how this internal template is applied consciously or unconsciously to the establishment of identity.
Given the subjectivity of this investigation, a comprehensive photographic study of the private and the public was presented in the form of 48 artist's books for my doctoral examination / exhibition.
Central to this research is the way photography becomes a vehicle for memory and as such materialises when we experience a retrieval clue - a clue in whatever shape our senses privilege. Historically the photograph has been regarded as a tangible object that inserts people, places and events, and occupies an almost unquestionable place in history. However, the changes in electronic based media would suggest that the photographic object is now a diminishing signifier. The effect this shift will have on the way we photograph is regarded as 'memento' is as significant as it is disturbing to research is this field.
As we age, memories, in particular visual ones, remain substantially the same. However memories may not be exact copies of the material lodged in the brain and information may be altered, deleted or modified in the re-telling, in whatever form that occurs. Conscious erasures and deletions have become part of today's digital culture and underpin this research. Editing material to present the most complimentary profile of an individual or erasure of background information raises questions of authenticity and where once the photographic image could be considered legitimate proof, digital photography cannot make such a claim, nor be a living entity.
I explore the different roles and personas undertaken by the artist through the process of narrative and photo-documentation. See my Doctoral thesis : huskn.
