"I'm always celebrating what's in front of the lens." - Casey Moore
Casey Moore is a London-based photographer with a focus on New Zealand subjects. Born in Invercargill, but raised from the age of three in Switzerland and later London, Moore has kept a narrative of reconnection with his homeland running through his work.
This narrative is apparent in the way Moore photographs his subjects with a careful consideration of place. The works in his botanical series were taken in situ in the Fiordlands of the South Island, while his photographs of native New Zealand insects were taken in the British Museum: mirroring his own position as an Antipodean transplant in London. T.J McNamara, of The New Zealand Herald, describes the work as ‘brilliantly revealing, all having a special place in our fauna and imagination”.
A deep connection to materials is also woven through Moore's practice. He uses only analog methods for capturing and printing his photographs, and massages the large-scale prints by hand through chemical baths. This physicality has become integral to his work, and is reflected in the bodily experience of viewing his photographs.
I've always been drawn to looking at the world in close-up. It's like visiting another dimension. I feel that childlike fascination every time I look through my camera at a small object. By using large format analog cameras and making my prints by hand as large as possible, I want to reconnect with that child in me that saw wonder everywhere. Quantum physics tells us that at the level of energy everything is connected, and I explore this through my photographs, making the bridge between the empirical and spiritual. By enlarging and bringing to life the world up close, we can see that everything at one level or another, is linked.