We had quite an exciting adventure this past weekend as we traveled to Santa Barbara for the grand opening of Josh's MFA thesis gallery show. The opening was a huge success and Josh' body of work entitled, Exiting Existence, was very well received. Josh's entire show will be on display at Brooks Institute’s Gallery 27, October 1st - October 31st, 2009.
Artist Statement: Exiting Existence
We live in a society of great personal freedoms, and yet we imprison ourselves in so many ways. We surround ourselves with false promises, and we create personas based upon our possessions. We have become slaves to the daily grind, devoting our lives to our work and losing ourselves in the process. We trade our identities for paychecks. We worship the gods of progress, but we do not honor our existence.
I created this body of work to express my mounting distress over these occurrences. Widespread acceptance of the status quo continually fuels my need to share these concerns. Photography gives me a lens and a set of filters that help to actively focus how I see the world around me. The power of photography lies within its ability to transform a subject into symbols which reverberate with greater power, and I could not imagine a better tool to use in order to express my views.
I propose that we actually start living, rather than waiting for some entity to come along and define us.
