My Reflected Reality

What is left out in photographs often speaks as strongly as what is seen. Each of Dura’s images begins with elements seen in his dream world and he develops his concepts as he assembles props perfecting every detail as he refines composition and lighting. Lines and forms, shading and highlights commonly associated with painting and sculpture, are his language of picture making. By laying out a visual puzzle, his images spring from the enigmatic world of Surrealism and confront the viewer with unfamiliar and original expressive possibilities, and Dura’s engagement with great masters like Max Ernest feed his own creativity.

Fish has been used as a metaphor in all his photography. Taking them out of the magical underwater atmosphere and bringing them into his images allows them to function as a metaphor for the suffering of modern, alienated, lonely human being. In the company of Bosch, Dali, Ernst and other contemporary artist like Peter Witkin, Dura creates an inexhaustible reality not for himself, but for us too.

All photographs in the “My Reflected Reality” series were taken with 4×5 inch films between 1998 and 2004, and no digital manipulation was applied.