michael sciam

The photographs I show in this section, have been selected among numerous shots taken during the course of twenty years, from 1980 to 2000, on the streets of Perugia, Assisi, Firenze, Roma, Milano, Cefalù, New York City, Chester (Vermont), San Juan de Puerto Rico, Barcelona, Den Haag, Paxos, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, München, Zuerich, Lausanne, Bern, Nyon.

The pictures appear exactly as they were taken since there have been no alterations to the original shot during processing and printing.

The subjects of these photographs are torn posters, street pavement, wall surfaces, painted asphalt, sheet metal siding, wet windows.
These are not presented as objects in their own right, but as sources of form and color which combine to express a dynamic balance between elements.
It is only when the photographer frames these objects through the camera's lens that they acquire a new and unexpected visual significance.
People pass these objects daily, failing to notice them completely or at best, see them as eyesores. The camera transforms what is often considered garbage into abstract images of beauty, form, and color.

There are no actual direct exchanges between my paintings and my photographs, that is to say, both techniques proceed autonomously.
The techniques are different but the eye which uses them is the same.
However, the creative process is quite different: with painting I start from an "empty" white surface (the canvas or sheet of paper) which I "fill up" with shapes and colors.
With photography it is just the opposite: among a given, continuous and chaotic flow of shapes and colors, the camera selects only those shapes and colors which seem suitable to me in order to achieve a meaningful composition.

Although these photographs were taken in various places at different times, they sometimes share common elements, such as a triangle, a circle, a white line or just the partition of the visual field. Following these similarities I have put some of these images together in a row. Four different frames combine with one another and each one becomes part of a whole sequence.
It is amazing to see how, regardless of different time, place and situation, the eye often comes and select similar patterns.

It looks as if an inner path unveils and finds its way out through the shapes and colors of the external world.