Felix Xifel

Artist Statement

The illuminating Sun gave us life and eventually photography. The exploration of photography started when we discovered the way light travels across time and space and how we encountered shades of images due to the interaction of light and its surroundings.

Understanding the principals of photography and immersing myself in the process are the technical parts of my work. Camera Obscura helps me understand how images are created. Drawing with Light is the terminology we commonly used to describe Photography which comes from the Greek words phos (light) and graphis (stylus/ paintbrush).

I’m interested in turning places and rooms into life-sized cameras, the process of creating a Camera Obscura, blacking out the space to complete darkness. By making an aperture light comes after darkness, the outside is brought inside; streets, shops, cars, trees, buildings, planes - all these elements interact with carpet, ceiling, lamps, furniture and myself.

I’m fascinated in how light navigates, how it leaks or emanates from various sources in a space. I like to intervene by capturing these traces and reconstruct a representation of a space/location. This led me to create works that is an architectural map and site responsive narrative.

I like approaching my projects as if it is an empty canvas where I can direct, in some cases, how light is going to “draw my images”. With Camera Obscura and pinhole, they also allow me to explore themes of time and motion which has allowed me to express myself through this photographic process.