Shadows:                                                                                       Philip Ross Munro 2013

“Every culture and religion has addressed the 'Shadow' in some fashion or another. Sages to priests, philosophers and psychoanalysts have used the shadow as both tool and metaphor.

I began to photograph human shadows with the intent of expressing a certain universality however, the maverick extremes in the results provided definitively individualistic representation and intent. The images, while concrete, are physically difficult for the human eye to focus on since the right brain oriented fovea seeks resolution and explanation.

Shadows are illusions and yet not. It is perhaps because of this that shadows in certain cultures are thought of as good intentioned Genies while in others they may be feared. One is never without fear however learning to trust, to see clearly the diversity in what appears to be unclear may allow constructive alteration of tradition. Without education there is no evolution in the psyche of the individual or the collective.

The Shadow series repeats the path of the Underwater Nude Series: earlier images bear direct compositional correlations to iconic archetypes and over time evolve into a more intense emotional investigation. Photography, as a medium, lends itself most readily to capturing the correlation of form and spirit found fleetingly in human shadow.

This series incorporates elements of both painting and photography. The dialogue retains a personal communication which viewers respond to viscerally with curiosity. Shadows are perhaps nebulous and unsung portraits of the soul, a distorted dance of the id or for some: nefarious, ominous emblems.

The tableaux I create exist in a personal space: a place of diverse emotional circumstance. In relation to the imagery people frequently ask: What's going on? The answer may simply be that my investigation of the human spirit, resembles that of a hunter, a conjuror, a chef, a witness, a poet, and a shadow."