Harley Weir’s work has been shifting from pages of fashion magazines to campaigns for some of the biggest names in the industry, but she’s done provocative portraiture photography and film as well. But with the publication of her new book she has extended her horizons beyond these fields. Paintings, Harley’s second publishing project released by the artist-run studio Loose Joints, is actually not about paintings. This 152-page flexi bound embossed hardcover book does not only cast a new light on the definition of images, painting and photography, but it also shows the beautiful overlap between them and redefines the boundaries of what they mean.
By not including the presence of people in her photographs, these images show an abstract inspired side to Weir’s work – sensually capturing space, form, colour, and movement. Paintings do not follow the concepts of neither traditional photography nor traditional painting, and yet are creating an independent discipline that stands on the pillars of photographic composition. Paintings is a result of a three years-long ‘surface study’ practise, and more importantly, it is a visual representation of Weir’s search for a ‘pure’ image. “With each picture made according to a specific set of rules and criteria, Weir attempts to expunge herself from the act of image-making, and encounter photography as a immediate, indulging process,” Loose Joints explains.
