Photiclore #1, #2 and #3 is a development of a long- pursued enquiry into ultimate, fundamental and particular values of photography, which might only be discovered by repressing, sidelining or diminishing any presumed, established or habitually applied values. It is a recent work in which Paul chooses an arbitrary site or subject (to diminish any ‘interesting’ or ‘extraordinary’ value of the content), and describes it using crude filtration (to sideline any technical valuation of the image.)

Despite all these reductions, an image with certain values and interests nevertheless remains or persists (as it were ‘against all odds’), though hopefully values and interests that hover on the edge of comprehension and articulation, rather than jumping too easily to the mind or tongue of the currently informed or ‘savvy’ viewer. By striving to make images that fall outside current systems of articulation and evaluation, while nevertheless carefully avoiding complete loss of value, he also pursues the peculiarly democratic and ubiquitous historical value of photography as a special art that has always been potentially of and for everyone.

Paul O’Kane has been working as an artist in London for 30 years, and studied art to PhD level. Photographic, writing and moving image practices have long been central to his enquiries. He also writes for leading art journals such as Art Monthly and Third Text.

Paul’s photography has evolved through the influence of photojournalism, printmaking, fine art, philosophy and sculpture as varying contexts. He also explored photography’s potential to evidence a psychological condition, as a virtual image and material object, and as a document of personal, technical and cultural history.
Significant exhibitions include For The Sake of The Image, Jerwood Space, London, 2010; There Will Be Others, Angus Hughes Gallery London, 2012; and So-Called Life, Camberwell Space, London, 2007.