from “Placement of Self” © Davin Youngs
Photography as a personal experience of life. Photography as a tool to reflect and explore relationships. This is the photography of Davin Youngs. Exquisite, emotional, sensitive and revealing.
His photography succeeds by imprinting a personal experience, and creating pictures with a subtle emotion that emerges from the subjects portrayed, sometimes family members, sometimes unknown people around him, sometimes himself.
from “A Project with My Father, © Davin Youngs
In A Project with My Father (2007), Davin shares a conversation with his father where the message is combined with portraits he took of himself and his father. This combination of a written conversation with a visual representation adds dimension to a project than becomes in itself a story of the history of his life.
My photographs are an investigation of how the nature of my relationships with those I photograph is visually represented. Gesture, location, and position of subject raise questions about the ways in which my interactions with the subjects exist and the space we occupy, even as it relates to self-portraiture. Some relational elements are clear, while others are questionable. This is meant to be the case, with the only consistent elements being the presence of me and the subject, as well as an awareness of my medium.
These are ideas I began exploring a couple of years ago when my father agreed to embark upon an interactive and photographic journey with me. The primary objective was to see in what ways my artistic medium could unpack our relationship using both words and photographs. I wrote a series of questions that I considered relationship defining or “things I would love to know”, and asked him to answer them via email. He responded willingly and with more beautiful answers than I had anticipated. I placed the words and photos next to one another to explore the ways in which they interact.- Davin Youngs
This statement was taken from a recent publication by Davin at “The Present Group” entitled “You Were There Too” that unfortunately is sold out. The Present Group is a very interesting project for both art collectors and emerging artists, where funding for projects comes from subscriptions, thus allowing the financing of new art and the access to limited editions art pieces at affordable prices. The concept of accessing and providing art at affordable prices is something that I will speak about at future posts.
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