Chris May’s work in photographic abstraction invites the viewer question the way we see things through our perception of space, colour, reflection, shadow and light. His approach to this genre follows in the modernist tradition, as he subtracts the formal principles of representation, time and place in order to come closer to what is unseen. Most of his work is carried out in a studio- based environment however, the process is multi layered. The act of composing and building the abstract is separate from the camera or the photograph. It is an instinctive process that anticipates how light will respond and where shadow will speak louder than the darkness itself. Through this process of construction, the form and line develop intuitively revealing intriguing facets, reflections and mixtures of colour as though freshly discovered.
In a sense, his work presents images without pictures,—a record of non-objective feelings, sensations and impressions that focus less on capturing ‘what is’ and more what is less evident. The creative process of removing the immediate reality by peeling away what is immediately before the camera, reveals that through abstraction multiple realities exist.