WHAT IS THE WHY?

As a child growing up with my mother in Australia I was surrounded by the potent photography of two talented young uncles whom I adored. Though the memories of my childhood experiences have blurred into mellow colors and tones that evoke feelings rather than lucid, articulate recollections, the images that my uncles captured cut through that soft focus blur and remain as powerful today as they were 40 years ago. They have become the inherited icons of my childhood – now lovingly hung on the walls of my home – with tendrils reaching out and connecting me to a past that would otherwise be lost. They are alive in the memory and not dead on a page. I have always been grateful that they bothered to capture these images at all but, more than that, I am grateful that they cared enough to capture them artfully. The intent of my photography is to do the same for those who entrust me with their own moments and memories. I like to think that documenting a life can – and should – be done in the spirit of that life: a celebration of experience, rather than merely proof of existence; invested with movement, vigor and drama rather than static, staged performance. I would like to photograph you as you engage in living: in an environment, activity or relationship that is important to you; or in the studio and the inner world of your imagination as you inhabit the role of the object of attention. My portraiture is an effort to capture your life artfully in images that will endure and become the icons of your own experience: images that aim to show who you are. Not just where you were or that you were here

My name is Karl Christoff Dominey. Let me catch you in the art of living.