There is in me, I know, a small thrill whenever I experience the real essence of something, such as the truth of an argument or the real cause of a problem. Likewise in a visual sense I get this when I see the raw source materials that create a constructed object, peeking through. This can happen because our human made artefacts inevitably retain an element of naturalness or “more than human otherness”. This unknowability, this otherness resides in the material from which an object is made, the tree trunk of the telephone pole, the clay of the tile from which a building is clad, the metal alloy of an industrial skip bin, all these carry, like our bodies, the textures and rhythms of a pattern that we ourselves did not engineer or plan, and their quiet dynamism responds directly to our senses.

However, its seems, especially in a modern city, that this kind of rawness is rejected, being seen almost as a reflection of our failure to control. This dynamism from the natural world is trapped within mass-produced structures and closed off from the rest of the earth, imprisoned within our technologies. Cities therefore become newer and emptier of this natural otherness as even more streamlined buildings or products are rapidly created to gloss over these phenomena. The challenge then is to discover places or objects where the polished and abstractly conceived surfaces of this human made world has, for at least a moment, been ruptured, broken through or held at bay, exposing this raw ‘otherness’.

Once these sites are found, my creative process becomes more akin to an archaeologist than a photographer. I use the camera to scrape off the surface, so to speak, preserving the potential experience that resonates in the exposed raw materials or gestures. The Photoshop process that follows is more like a laboratory where little by little the man made purpose and function is dissolved and the subtleties and power of the raw materials that lie waiting, are gradually brought forward.

My work is an attempt to adopt a deeper connection and identification with the environment I live in. These photographs try to visually link the viewer in to the greater underlying natural forces that still permeate this place, despite the overwhelming mass of pure man made material that we live in. Finally, the work involves an enormous amount of quiet contemplation on my part and hopefully provides an ongoing visual experience for those who share a kinship with the otherness that lies waiting in the world around us.

Steve Weller is a photo-media artist who lives and works in Melbourne.

Bachelor Of Fine Arts - Photography
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Melbourne, 1992 - 1995

Certificate of Photography
Certificate of Advanced Photography
Brighton Technical College
Melbourne, 1990-1991

Digital Imaging
Northern Metropolitan Institute of TAFE
Melbourne, 2003 - 2004

CCP -Autumn Salon 2006
Linden Gallery - Post Card Show 2006
CCP -Autumn Salon 2005
Linden Gallery - Post Card Show 2005
Homeless Gallery 2004
CCP - RMIT Graduate show 1995