Artist Reflection - Idris Khan

I picked Idris Khan because of our recent work in collages and composites. He produces his beautifully subtle collages through meticulous repetition of imagery. By overlaying different pictures of similar objects, his final photographs resemble a pattern or object that doesn't feel there. The photographs become ghostly and even a bit unsettling. For example, one picture is every page of the Qu'ran overlaying each other to create an extremely symmetrical pattern. But I wanted to talk about a photo the really stuck out to me because of it's raw simplicity. The image on the left truly becomes abstracted through Khan's extensive editing process, seemingly just a sphere floating in space. The nuances in shading really give the pieces a sense of three-dimensionality, however.

I had to look up how Khan made the photo, as I really couldn't tell what it was. It's a compilation of gas holders, which is apparently where Britain hides it's gas. I've never seen them here in American, but correct me if I'm wrong.

By overlaying many, many of these gas holder photos, Idris looses much of the original detail, making the viewer see raw organic beauty it what otherwise is considered a mundane subject. It's a great example of minimalism in photography.