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Walking In A New World

February 10, 2023

In the 1980s I remember getting annoyed with editors when they cropped my photographs. Who would have thought that forty years later I would be harvesting different figures from images and creating new compositions!

The image below was made from three different files. Everyone I photograph on the street are in their own world. What are they thinking? Where are they going? Where have they been? What will happen to them in the future? These are some of the questions that occur to me when I review my street photographs of people frozen in time. I think the image below represents my curiosity about the individuals and my speculation about their lives.

I’ve always believed that all humans are linked together in a number of ways despite cultural, class or economic circumstances. These two individuals may have a lot in common although it’s likely their paths will never cross; both were photographed in different cities. The work therefore also explores the element of chance in all our lives.

They’ve been placed in an imaginary landscape which is a detail from a painting I made on the inside of a discarded corn flake box. Once the assembled image was printed I then worked on it with watercolour and pencil. Ultimately I’m attempting to get the viewer to look at the two subjects more closely unfettered by the street environment I photographed them in individually.

‘Walking In A New World’. Mixed media 2023.
‘Walking In A New World’ (detail). Mixed media 2023.
‘Walking In A New World’ (detail). Mixed media 2023.

You can purchase photographs and other art by Phil Maxwell here: https://theartofresistance.bigcartel.com/products

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