MADDISON MANASSEH

Deviating from the Familiar

‘Deviating from the familiar’, blends together the scientific and the natural. What started as macro flower photography has become an investigation into a reconstruction of the familiar. By cropping and editing sections of the original photo, I’ve produced a series of work that is familiar yet strange to observe. Isolating the flora against a black background, the biological detail evident in each specimen has been emphasised and the plants themselves have undergone a small evolution. Artist Levon Biss claims that “A danger is that as we get older, our curiosity becomes slightly muted or dulled by familiarity”, which is why his photographs are unique. This idea can also be represented in the photographs due to how fractured and remade they are. Through ‘Deviating from the familiar’, I ask the audience to consider the familiar, and how we respond to it once recontextualised.