Jake Wisdom
Constructed reality
As a photographer my work is made up from transforming ordinary cityscapes into abstract compositions serving as an escape from the conventional style of urban photography. I decided to use vintage postcards as my medium of choice and used these to create collages, manipulating and fragmenting these images to show a unique perspective on cityscapes.
With each image I created I meticulously manipulated and fragmented old images and postcards of buildings reconstructing them so they fit into a visual narrative that mirrors my personal interpretation of a cityscape. Just like in the streets of a city there are a multitude of diverse architectural features that all seamlessly work together in an area like a large scale complex puzzle perfectly fitting together. This is what has fundamentally shaped all of my images into my artistic expression that it is now.
By using photography as my medium of choice it has led me to flattening three dimensional structures into two dimensional images and further deconstructing them by making them into smaller sections and then reconstructing the images out of these fragmentations. By doing this I aim to convey the intricacies of structures and diverse architectural forms showing the artificial nature of photography but also inviting the viewer to question the nature of these constructed realities where buildings are flattened and reshaped into a new abstract form.
By incorporating vibrant colours into select images of my work adds an additional layer of distortion infusing my images with a visual contemporary aesthetic inviting the viewers to explore my images in a different style from reality to imagination.
Overall my work seeks to challenge the perceptions of urban landscapes inviting viewers to reconsider what they know as real though familiar looking imagery that has been warped into an unconventional perspective I have placed upon them. By creating my imagery this way, through fragmentation I further invite them to embark on a journey of discovery through the city where the boundaries between reality and illusions blur transforming my work into a fresh blank canvas where they can appreciate the complexities of fabricated environment.