UNCERTAINTY
“No thing has a definite position, a definite trajectory, or a definite momentum”
- Werner Heisenberg
- Werner Heisenberg
This photographic work is inspired by the first image in the series that I took at the end of September 2012. The nature of the ghostly figure seen on the stairs remains completely unknown to me. This photograph is a true mystery. I have no idea whatsoever what it is or who it is that I photographed, because as far as I know I was alone that night photographing the stair set lit by a streetlight. However, the result turned out to be absolutely unpredictable and surprising.
This entire photographic series came to represent “the uncertainty principle” in quantum mechanics. I consider this principle to be one of the most fundamental life-guiding principles. It explains an interference created by any observer, like you and me, which influences the result of our observation. Small particles have neither position nor momentum in space-time until they are measured or simply observed. They are completely uncertain about their existence/non-existence unless a scientist or anybody else decides to look at them.
These photographs are the result of interaction of different everyday Portland settings at night and 'a ghostly figure' imagined and installed in the locations. Each photograph is an uncertainty in itself. The images are meant to question the reality of the place, the figure, the relationship between the two, and the act of observation itself. Since you influence the world by simply looking at and thinking about it, and impact the outcome of certain things and events, it is you who is going to decide what you end up looking at. Ghostly figure has neither gender, nor life, nor any direction or purpose until you dare to glance at it. Each image leaves a possibility for one to imagine and dream.
I think it is a much better way to conceptualize the description of reality by sometimes thinking of it one way and other times the other way, rather than arbitrarily forcing it into one category over another. Especially, when you have to deal with the unknown and have no idea whatsoever about the true nature of this so-called 'reality'.
A genuine sense of curiosity is the main drive for creating these photographs. I wanted to find some explanation for what I photographed and how, so I decided to attempt a recreation of the images resembling the original mystical photograph that I took in the first place. However, with all the different techniques and effects that I employed I could not achieve a result even close to it. Instead of trying to solve the mystery, I got even more entangled in this enigma. I honestly have no idea about what or who I am looking at the ghostly photograph. I do not know what you are going to see on it and on all other images either because everybody experiences the world completely differently. You set the boundaries for your own perception, and you see only what you are conditioned to see.
