John Charbonneau

I am interested in icons, especially for how they can be manipulated. To that end, I work to create photographs with a mysterious dimension, a seamless visual ambiguity between the real and imaginary.

Each piece is made up of several to many digitally combined images from my collection of photographs. I generally scan three or four images as the base elements for a new composition. Then, as the work evolves, I scan and incorporate others. To create a playfully surreal outcome, a consistent image making strategy I employ is the use of extraordinarily vibrant color. Others include transformation, repetition, substitution, disruption of scale, and inconsistent perspective. The direction of the work takes on a life of its own, which I could not have predicted at the outset. Wide and flat becomes tall and narrow. Weather changes and day becomes night. When to stop? There is no end to it, only stages in the process. Along the way, I make prints on Fuji Crystal Archive photographic (type c process) paper.