Still-Scenes: Photographs by Graeme Magee

Artists Statement

Born in Johnstone, Scotland, in 1959, I studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art from 1978 until 1983.  I still live and work in Edinburgh.  Photography has been my preferred medium since 1993.  Although my pictures can be serious in intent, the subject very often takes the form of a joke, pun, ironic twist or cultural reference.  As well as humor, play is a very important  element.  For example, I enjoy playing with  that quite theatrical  genre, the staged still life.  This theatrical element in my work possibly dates back to a childhood fascination for the enigmatic, mysteriously masked and flamboyantly attired commedia del arte figures I saw illustrated in an old encyclopedia.  The manikins, dolls, statues and other props I use often have their own strong associations to both high and popular culture, adding not only humor, but extra layers of meaning to any given image.  I have an abiding obsession with junk, clutter and detritus of all types allied to a penchant for incongruous juxtapositions of objects either come upon by chance or self-consciously created.  Indeed, the need to capture the succinctness, presence, materiality and sheer strangeness of objects in space has been one of the most enduring elements in my approach to taking pictures

Whenever I feel trapped by the studio environment, I turn to the more spontaneous discoveries of  the world beyond the studio.  Even here, though, I find myself seeking out subjects which are similar in essence, or refer to in some manner, those subjects I pursue in my studio tableaux.  Nevertheless there are some important differences in approach, for example I tend take my location photos almost exclusively in b/w and on 35mm film.  In contrast the tableaux are photographed most often in color using  4×5 transparency film and a studio camera. Also, unlike my studio work, my b/w shots encompass elements of candid or street photography and develop in a more overtly serial fashion with the various thematic elements progressing in separate but closely related streams.  A theme can  relate to a particular time or place, for example I can be inspired by different cities on my travels, or it can be a particular subject explored over a longer period of time e.g. the bizarre world of shop windows.  In fact the camera viewfinder, for me, is a window through which I can see a world rendered more sharply defined, isolated and specific where things have a different hierarchy of importance than they do in the experiences of everyday life, or the casual glance.

That photography is a medium rooted in the concrete is undeniable, nevertheless it has the ability to evoke a depth of vision that some may describe as spiritual and a sensibility which somehow transcends the cold mechanical release of the camera shutter.  I found in my discovery of photography, a form which had an immediacy and a directness that enabled me to develop a tangible and creative contact with the world beyond the studio walls, something I had studiously avoided as a painter.  Photography, therefore, broadened my vision both metaphorically and literally, the magic of discovery was no longer dominated by my imagination alone or the limitations of a style haunted by past art.  I am now much more of an explorer than I was before, in the literal sense. The frame of the viewfinder is my preferred limitation, a platform through which I explore a world filled with objects.



Graeme Magee                  2002