George Byrne

While George Byrne was wrapping up a new gallery exhibition in Sydney, Memento sat down to discuss his background as an artist. George shared the motivations and underlying messages behind his work and also his view on fashion as a medium of photography.

To start, could you share a bit about yourself and speak to how your career in the photographic arts began?

I took an interest in photography from a pretty young age, experimenting with all sorts of cameras throughout my teenage years. After Highschool, I went on to do a Fine Arts degree at Sydney University, majoring in photography. Amongst all of that, I was traveling a fair bit and started having little exhibitions in Sydney for my family and friends – all photographs I’d taken abroad. So that was my foundation and how I started out exhibiting, but it wasn’t until I moved to Los Angeles in my mid 30’s that I hit my stride creatively and started to build a career. In LA I found an urban landscape that inspired me immensely and also a new global online audience, that helped me get my work out there in a way that was unprecedented. All this led to some gallery representation, and it rolled on from there. Looking back, I think I got very lucky with all those things lining up the way they did.

“In LA I found an urban landscape that inspired me immensely.”

Building from the prior question, what motivates you as an artist today and has that evolved over time?

Even though my work has evolved a lot over the years, I think my key motivation is still the world around me. Light, form, color, surface, composition, beauty, mystery. All these things interwoven, creating some sort of alchemy in the brain. I think the best art is like the best music, it can move you without rational or verbal explanation. It’s magic. These are the things that interest me when I’m both consuming art, or creating my own. When it comes to the content of my work and what I concentrate on; starting out as an artist, I was very much a student of the New Topographics photographic movement, a style based on the photographer’s neutral eye, famous for documenting the mundane structures of post-war America. Around the time I moved to LA, I started to become interested in employing various forms of manipulation and digital reconstruction into the work I was making. As a result, the works were able to become more painterly, expressive and introspective, a bridge between my subconscious and conscious.

“My key motivation is still the world around me: light, form, color, surface, composition, beauty, mystery. All these things interwoven, creating some sort of alchemy in the brain."

The works selected for this release are from a set of works titled, Post Truth. They have been described as depicting the 'gritty urbanism of Los Angeles in sublime otherworldliness and dwelling in the liminal space between real and imagined.' As the title suggests, can you share more context behind any messages of subjective perceptions and 'truth' - as far as both society and photography is concerned?

The two images selected for the Memento collaboration were indeed from my Post Truth series. This was a series where I explored the use of misrepresentation and misdirection as tools of expression. I was keen for the photographs to feel like collage or dreamscapes, to be portals to a reality just adjacent to the one we live in. There are also obviously broader societal applications to the post-truth idea that come into play. With the fragmentation of news media and the erosion on faith in public institutions. All these issues play a part in the concept behind the works. On top of all that, we’re now dealing with AI technology that’s going to further effect the way we think, and process reality.

“This was a series where I explored the use of misrepresentation and misdirection as tools of expression. I was keen for the photographs to feel like collage or dreamscapes, to be portals to a reality just adjacent to the one we live in.”

Do you feel fashion can be a powerful medium for photography and how has Memento influenced that opinion?

“I’ve always thought fashion was a powerful medium for art in general. For starters it's mobile, it gets it out of galleries and homes and into a completely fresh, more personalized context.”

Yes, I’ve always thought fashion was a powerful medium for art in general. For starters it's mobile, it gets it out of galleries and homes and into a completely fresh, more personalized context. I love seeing what imagery people choose to represent themselves with, it’s fascinating. To finally have my own work out there, in situ with such a progressive and high-quality outfit as Memento is just awesome. I’m excited.

As an artist, you have achieved fantastic balance between the analog and digital worlds. When bringing your work into galleries, books and the digital realm, can you share how you think about the balance between offline and online mediums?

“I also think as time goes on, and the online world gets more and more complex and infinite, there will be a huge swing back to analogue simplicity. A nice piece of apparel with a beautiful print on it will never die.”

It's funny, I’ve found myself as a proponent for balancing new and old tech almost by accident. I was a student of analogue & film etc., so it’s what I know best and what makes most sense to me, but I’ve also always been very curious about technology and where it’s going. The problem for me is, I’m quite inept and slow at using any tech, so that’s partly why I’m forced to find that balance!

I rely on talented tech fluent collaborators to drag my work (and life) into the 21st century. In the broader sense though, I struggle as much as the next person with managing my addiction to the phone and all the rest of it. I hope/expect social media, like any other drug, will be reformed and restricted in the coming years, once the data is in as to how damaging it can be. I also think as time goes on, and the online world gets more and more complex and infinite, there will be a huge swing back to analogue simplicity. A nice piece of apparel with a beautiful print on it will never die.

GEORGE BYRNE | NOW AVAILABLE