ABSTRACT
I have been captivated by photography’s wonder since my childhood, when my aunt gave me a small grey plastic box that recorded black-andwhite photographs. The notion that such a device could permanently record a moment of time and space in perfect detail was astounding to me. I found the ability to render precise images of nature without the requisite dexterity of a nely trained artist appealing. I suspect early photographic practitioners experienced a similar sense of wonder as they developed images on metal or glass plates. I can only speculate as to the awe photographic inventors such as Niépce, Daguerre and Talbot1 must have experienced as they worked with their wooden boxes, silver-oncopper plates or salted papers and toxic chemicals, as images of unprecedented detail emerged before their eyes. However, photography’s wonder goes beyond concise factual representation, as alluded to by John Tagg.2 Instead, it allows me to engage deeper image ideologies residing in the realm of connotation, or second order signication, as discussed by Roland Barthes3 and Daniel Chandler.4 Photography functions at varying levels, whether that be as vernacular snapshots, precise renderings within scientic applications, or metaphorical images probing cultural ideologies and associated identities. It is this chameleon-like characteristic of photography that captivates me within my own practice.
