"Photo Death" by David Miller
Photographic Installation (2005/2006)

This is an installation of a dressing table, but (perhaps against our expectations) on close inspection it obviously belongs to a man. As well as regarding himself in the mirror, the owner has surrounded the area with images of himself in various roles, although the memories they hold will fade away as the images are not 'fixed' and will slowly turn black in the light. The photograph has an interesting relationship to time, and this is particularly resonant when the image is of a person: it captures a moment, so suggests the present, but instantly fixes this in the past, while also suggesting the future in which the subject will be dead and only remembered in photographs. The photographic portrait turns the subject into an object, literally in terms of the physical photograph, but also by appearing to freeze them in space and time.

Drawing on male style, from the traditional suited gentleman to the extravagant dandy, these images question the 'macho' stereotype. This piece draws parallels with "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, where a man stays young and beautiful while his portrait shows the ravages of a libertine life. There is a suggestion that by becoming a beautiful object, the dandy is able to escape the flow of time, and ultimately death. However, rather than having photographs which document and preserve this image, these darkening images become a poignant memento mori, reminding us that whatever we do, everything will fade.

Mr. David Miller is a Birmingham based artist working in video and performance as well as photography. He finished his Fine Art MA at UCE in 2005, and has been in exhibitions in London and Taiwan as well as many in Birmingham. He co-curated the show The Whole Has A One To One Correspondence To Any Part in 2004, and Fruition and SeeSaw in 2005. He also writes poetry, loves fine wine and dresses very well.