stephen rood

This photographic series explores perception as a performative act.

This photographic series explores perception as a creative, reflexive dialogue that embraces deviations and distortions as integral components. These images resist representational tendencies while embracing the metaphorical qualities of their elements. They do not seek to disclose or denote anything specific but rather provide a site for such occurrences. The series explores the performance of seemingly meaningless objects, without fully veering into abstraction, leaving elements of recognition for perception to take place. The existing narrative serves as a framework for the relationships between objects, their recording, and the performance of their encounter.

The work’s process embraces a musical approach to creation, exploring metaphors of spontaneity and rehearsal as part of creative production. Photography often requires a back story for its meaning, while music typically evokes an emotive response without explanation. Applying this concept to photographic creation, these works explore the perception of photographic images without being confined to literal meanings. They are crafted within a loose operatic narrative, featuring its own characters, conflicts, and resolutions. The choice of objects, their placements, and the relationships between them follow a free-form interplay akin to a performative recital.