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A light on the wall. By Emma Phillips. Perimeter Editions, 2016. |
"The concept of illusion is one deeply embedded within the photographic mythos. With the camera one can easily distort perception and alter reality. However, alternatively, the camera can be used as a vessel to capture oddities nestled amongst the everyday. In Emma Phillips’ A light on the wall, the camera is used to document the subtly awry, the quietly bizarre, and the illusive nature of the human presence.
With her exposure dialed in and her flash infinitely present, Phillips offers us a myriad of images that suggests to the viewer that they question their reality. Imitation houseplants play the imposter, while papier-mâché sharks dangle from ceilings suspended in mid air. A hollowed out plane awaits assembly, while a door opens into a crudely done replica of a pointillist painting. Phillips is using the camera to point out the surreal hidden within modernity. The images in A light on the wall feel forensic, composed, and ethereal.
While simply journaling the everyday as viewers, we are able to lay witness to Phillips’ devotion to her practice. Not uncommon, it is easy for this style of photographic documentation to feel overly relatable, boring, and poorly edited. However, in A light on the wall Phillips is able to give us something that feels organic, strange, and mysterious. With this monograph we experience a departure from normality, a welcome change to the steady pace of daily routine, and an impulse to take a closer look at our surrounding" —Christian Michael Filardo
Purchase Book
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| A light on the wall. By Emma Phillips.. Perimeter Editions, 2016. |
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| A light on the wall. By Emma Phillips.. Perimeter Editions, 2016. |
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