Paris Photo LA : Introducing !

CJ Heyliger is studying at the University of California, Los Angeles.

This body of work is born out of the realization that my interests lie in using photography to create an environment rather than to depict one–viewing the landscape as a studio instead of a subject, and using the camera as an interpreter as opposed to a recorder. 
I take two approaches to picture-making. The first is a straightforward, empirical manner where description is of the highest importance. I think of the resulting images as samples, and use the act of photographing as a means of amassing a collection of various objects and materials.  My second method of working exploits the material and mechanical limitations of photography to create pictures that are otherwise physically impossible. Through the manipulation of exposure, or the deliberate fragmentation of the way an image accumulates on a piece of film, I am able to construct images that are specifically photographic. The liminal space created by these images frees me from the landscape photographer’s anxiety of discovering terra nova. Though the source material for these images is terrestrial, the photographs depict a fabricated place – a landscape of the mind. My hope is that this work points to greater philosophical issues about orienting oneself in space and looking at the world.

_{http://www.art.ucla.edu
http://www.cjheyliger.com}