Edison William
Edison William (b.1983 in Edison, New Jersey) is a photographic collage artist based in Atlantic Beach, FL. He studied art and photography at the University of North Florida in 2006, and was introduced to color slide reversal film. The depth of saturation absolutely transcended photographic capture, and the desire to explore deeper into the possibilities of what can be done AFTER the image took his priority. Over time, hundreds of rolls of film were over-exposed and over-developed, and he began mingling these thinned-out little worlds of landscapes with common objects, people, and contrasting seasons. Rather than utilizing digital manipulations, the transparencies were combined by hand, taped together, and scanned it. In 2009, William began a series titled, “A Travelogue for Sleepwalkers,” a collection of work that layers living memories by weaving them into real but impossible perspectives. Hallucinatory and sometimes hypnotic scenes of minimalistic dreamscapes set the stage for the characters to wander arbitrarily throughout a somnambulist’s daydream, where figures are reduced to phantom-like phenomenon. The cooler tonalities found within Fujichrome film seems to lend to a atmosphere of quiet tranquility, but encourages a creeping melancholia as well.
In 2016, William began utilizing the digital practices within photography, shooting the same, everyday subjects (clouds, moons, people, mountains and beaches) but with a heightened sense of awareness to detail. The tedious process of selecting and cutting out individual elements became the long and time-consuming journey to re-imagining them into believable places with narratives hidden in their own quixotic arrangements. He continued to reassemble straightforward elements into heavily detailed collages, some of which contain up to 200 of his own photographs. Figures exist in both complex and minimal spaces, while the biorhythms of nature cycle around them. William’s deep and personal connection to the lunar cycle aims to highlight an illusionary technique in compounding moonlight and sunlight to create luminescence. This technique has allowed for a surreal and romanticized approach to portraying naturalism. In his own attempts to paying homage to John James Audubon’s paintings of birds, Edison works to show a living theater in nature by glorifying local flora and fauna. His experience with bending shapes, perspectives, and color has allowed him to depict an Egret or an Ibis as something stylish and regal. The cast of characters are scattered throughout these collages, each one silently telling their own stories, some with loss, confusion, and despondency; other’s with love, lust, and wonder. The night scenes come alive in the forest and agave fields with blooming plants, creatures, and waterfalls, while the daytime tends to depict tension and confusion, worry and ambiguity. His work centers around the duality of human nature, and furthering an appreciation of the beauty and fragility of our environment during our relentless encroachment of human interaction.
