Gee Virdi

When I photograph people, faces -- the intensity of light pushes me like the wind. A strong force that forces me to be more abstract. For me, black and white is closer to my memories of picking up my dad's Lubitel 2 TLR Camera, I never studied photography. 2007 when I first picked up a 35mm camera. The camera served as a tool to express myself, as a method to escape my moods and trauma. In August 2008, I committed my life to the creation of art. My style evolved into an ongoing visual narrative and abstract diary, primarily portraits. When we pick up a paintbrush, or compose elements through our camera viewfinders, or press fingers into wet clay to wrestle form from a shapeless lump, we are bending things back toward Order and wrestling them from Chaos...
My subjects are people that I love or admire deeply - people that I get to know over time and study their inner worlds of violence, desire, madness and fear, like my own. The story is personal, created through the intense confrontation of my inner dialogue, shadow self, mental health and minds of my subjects. While personal, it is my intention to tap into the collective unconscious in the hopes that the story is not my own, but each of ours.
Influences: Psychoanalysis, Mental Health, Michael Borrremans, Peter Lindbergh, Helmut Newton, Marlene Dumas, Michael Freeman, Claude Cahun, Maya Deren, et al...