As far back as I can recall, geometric structure has always intrigued me. I remember as a student, working on school magazines, instead of taking the usual action sports shots, I would often return with abstract black and white images such as a basketball hoop in total silhouette, juxtaposed with a metal backboard against a bright white sky. Not a great idea if the assignment was action shots, but even back then, something within me made forms and shapes a high priority in my visual paradigm.

It may seem odd to some, but my visual instinct is to see the world in geometric forms, where all the daily imageries such as buildings, roads, trees, leaves, mountains are distilled into triangles, cubes, semi-circles, converging planes, and other lines and shapes. In my work, the goal is to capture unassuming and ordinary scenes, and transform these scenes into absorbing images via the endless relationships I see being played out among the myriad shapes, lines, planes, and very importantly, space (or void). In not so many words, "to place form before subject", where the geometric forms take on more significant roles and the actual subjects (e.g. trees, buildings) become subordinate in relevance.
It’s my strong belief there are compelling relationships between visual, geometric forms and human spiritual emotions. One example lies with converging lines and planes, which convey the feeling of infinity and harmony, and these feelings, in turn, may facilitate the viewer into meditative and introspective states.

Over time, I’ve received a gamut of comments on my work with descriptions such as cold and lifeless, haunting and surrealistic, abstract structure heaven, and spiritual conduit. In the end, speaking for myself, it has been, and probably always will be, about the emotion within that first prompted me to click the shutter.

 

James Ting
September, 2004