Paul Snell, Bleed #202124, Photograph, 2020s

Bleed # 202124 (Abstract Photography) Chromogenic Print Face-mounted 3mm Matte acrylic glas - Unframed. Edition: 1/3. Paul Snell combines traditional and digital techniques to explore the possibilities of abstraction and minimalism in contemporary photo-media. He lives and works in Launceston, Tasmania. Snell creates small production runs, printing each unique work in an edition of one to three. His process begins by capturing a location or an object on film with a traditional camera. He then digitally “decodes” the visual information present in that image. After reducing and simplifying the colors and forms, he begins an intensive “re-coding” process, during which the reduced formal elements of the work evolve their own self-referential relationships within a new composition. This process blurs the boundary between “taking” and “making” a photograph. When the digital composition is complete, Snell converts it into a Chromogenic print using the Lambda printing system, which allows luminous, vibrant, colorful photographic printing onto metallic paper. The print is then mounted onto acrylic glass. The visual lexicon Snell has developed is informed by the Modernist history of painting, especially minimalism and hard edged abstraction. Snell intends to create visually arresting works that allow viewers to enter into a contemplative, or even transcendent state. He achieves this through the deployment of rhythmic, harmonious visual structures such as concentric circular or linear patterns.