At some point, if not frequently, most of us pause to ask 'What is the use of my work, what is my role in society?'. Ideally, my response would be that through working creatively, I learn. Through learning I become more aware of what makes me, of what I am and consequently of my place in society.
However, the actual process of working is not so full of such positive notions. Being a part of living, it reflects life and human nature. Thus, in working, I face personal demons as well as the Graces. Truths, and equally valid yet totally contradictory truths, manifest themselves. Like life, I find that work is simultaneously beautiful and beastly, sublime and profane, singularly purposeful and chaotically deranged.
The glue that holds all of this together, no matter what one calls it, is magical, and defies rational thought. While being rooted in technique and process, photography is capable of evoking other places, other times and other truths. It presents alternatives and transformations. In this sense it too defies rational experience, and seems capable of triggering emotional resonances.
The current work has come about from a troubling thought. Perhaps we are more fearful of darkness that is barely taking form, than we are of absolute darkness. Perhaps this darkness forming is akin to the dragons that Hokusai envisioned spewing out of Mount Fuji, or the dragons that Rilke wrote of, dragons that are fearful guardians of our profoundest treasures. – Pradip Malde
