Statement
S. Martin's photographic practice excavates the latent poetics embedded within the everyday, attuning us to the oft-overlooked gestures, transient moments, and intimate spheres that permeate our daily lives, yet so frequently evade conscious recognition.
Foundational to S. Martin's approach is interrogating the mechanics of visual apprehension itself. His work urges the viewer to switch from an often passive act of "looking", to a more active way of "seeing". Unlike photographs that grab attention instantly, S. Martin's works are subtle and unassuming. Their strength unfolds gradually and their impact is slowly seeping in over time.
The artworks contain intricate details, and their scale is often important for the viewing experience. S. Martin constructs durational, quasi-meditative spaces that compel us to pause, recalibrating our perceptual faculties to attune ourselves to the particularities of our phenomenological sphere. His enigmatic photographs, imbued with an aura of murmuring mystery, entrance us to linger in a state of transcendent presence. A contemplative, mantric quality suffuses his pieces, kindling a deeper, more expansive sensitivity in the viewer.
For S. Martin, the photographic image becomes a resonant metaphoric vessel - a conduit into the evanescent sensations and affective responses that arise when we allow ourselves to linger in contemplation of the primordial mysteries of existence. His work sublimates the purely representational and descriptive, coalescing into what he terms "objects of emotional metaphor" that exhort introspection on the miniature sublimities inflecting our interior landscapes.
Ultimately, S. Martin's oeuvre becomes a summons to confront the coexisting polarities inflecting our existential condition - the joyous and horrific, the beautiful and grotesque, the generative and the entropic. He aspires to catalyze contemplation of our ontological situation as embodied beings, proffering gateways to spark a deeper exploration of our fundamental positionality, entangled within this boundless world.
Statement
S. Martin's photographic practice excavates the latent poetics embedded within the everyday, attuning us to the oft-overlooked gestures, transient moments, and intimate spheres that permeate our daily lives, yet so frequently evade conscious recognition.
Foundational to S. Martin's approach is interrogating the mechanics of visual apprehension itself. His work urges the viewer to switch from an often passive act of "looking", to a more active way of "seeing". Unlike photographs that grab attention instantly, S. Martin's works are subtle and unassuming. Their strength unfolds gradually and their impact is slowly seeping in over time.
The artworks contain intricate details, and their scale is often important for the viewing experience. S. Martin constructs durational, quasi-meditative spaces that compel us to pause, recalibrating our perceptual faculties to attune ourselves to the particularities of our phenomenological sphere. His enigmatic photographs, imbued with an aura of murmuring mystery, entrance us to linger in a state of transcendent presence. A contemplative, mantric quality suffuses his pieces, kindling a deeper, more expansive sensitivity in the viewer.
For S. Martin, the photographic image becomes a resonant metaphoric vessel - a conduit into the evanescent sensations and affective responses that arise when we allow ourselves to linger in contemplation of the primordial mysteries of existence. His work sublimates the purely representational and descriptive, coalescing into what he terms "objects of emotional metaphor" that exhort introspection on the miniature sublimities inflecting our interior landscapes.
Ultimately, S. Martin's oeuvre becomes a summons to confront the coexisting polarities inflecting our existential condition - the joyous and horrific, the beautiful and grotesque, the generative and the entropic. He aspires to catalyze contemplation of our ontological situation as embodied beings, proffering gateways to spark a deeper exploration of our fundamental positionality, entangled within this boundless world.