Five years ago, Alicia Taylor photographed an incredible storm in Tasmania, sparking a desire to use the image as part of an art piece. “The idea lay dormant until I photographed a woman swimming in Fiji, two years ago, and then I decided to merge these images”, she says of the genesis of her process.
For someone who makes a living through the medium of photography, she found the leap to creating her own art deeply challenging. However, Alicia made the mental shift to let go and rely on her intuition, and became aware of how emotion could be communicated through the image.
“Life can be volatile just like the weather, hence my use of the sky as one of my subjects. Water, on the other hand, can be very calming and by combining images of people in water a certain dynamic is created”, she says.
Her photography is about light and composition, the ability to add colour, depth and creative tension in the positioning of the limbs – sometimes awkward, sometimes fluid and evocative. Producing this collection has pushed her technical abilities as images layer on top of one another to create new dialogues and relationships between the Australian landscape, sky, seaweed, shadow and the limbs.
“It is a remarkable photographic debut drawn out of a desire to marry the different worlds of earth and sky, each with their particular volatilities and energies, merging in a seamless image that finds a link in the human element,” commented Karen McCartney, Editor, Author and Curator. We simply couldn’t agree more.
‘Above and Below’ opens tonight, and runs from 27th October to 10th of November at Becker & Minty.