JARED PHILLIS 



Artist Statement

My main focus of work is in photography, I am interested in photography because you can focus on a particular moment and freeze it for what may seem like forever, no matter what else is happening around the captured scene. Photography is something that can be factual and documentary while at the same time the medium can bend the truth, be fictional, and also create false narratives that aren’t immediately distinguishable. My work tends to focus on small and easily missed moments that are happening around us in a world that is fast-paced and seemingly full of chaos. I enjoy extracting these often overlooked moments from environments that are often inhabited or invaded by people who are focused on the next thing and next place rather than the current thing and current place by paying attention to the small details of the environment that we are in and allowing them to tell their story of their environment. Focusing on these little moments allows for the objects in the frames to speak to the volume of things that may occur in these spaces at any given moment. In the moment that they are captured there is a sense of ease or even serenity when most people would not stop to give these places a second thought, just simply as a place that they are passing through. 

Recently I have been focused, somewhat stuck, on this idea of being complacent. The idea and feeling of being stuck and not progressing while the people around you, as well as, well as the world around you continues to advance and progress is intriguing to me mainly from personal belief/experience. It is easy to have ideas of how to counteract these feelings and thoughts but executing the ideas and making them happen. The way I am depicting this feeling is by using the camera to create long exposures causing the subjects in the frame to be indistinguishable, giving a greater sense of the movement within the camera and the photograph. These images I am creating will still have a quiet and calming aspect to them but the movement of the photographs will give some sense of chaos and confusion as well. My work allows me to create an alternate space where I can be express how I feel and process things I am going through while also allowing myself to have a calm, relaxing platform, and just ponder and in extension, allows the viewer to feel the same things as me and create a narrative that fits their perspective.