Art of the Image

Artist Statement

Into the Darkness

Where does beauty live? To whom does she show her face?

This series is an accumulation of images created in Trinidad and abroad over the past decade.

I look for the unexpected beauty and energy in the everyday mundane and the ghastly, and through my art, I hope to provoke people to see the beauty that resides in the darkness and the shadows all around them.

Context and personal history have the ability to find or obscure beauty. For instance, a jab molassie is a traditionally ghoulish character. Upbringing and experience condition us to be afraid of the mud, paint, oil, and having to “pay the devil”. But strip away the cultural insight and our innate fears, and the devil can become an angel. Similarly, concrete piles driven into the sand at the mouth of the river may be insignificant. But add in childhood memories of carefree days at the beach and the smell of the salty air, and they transform into a memorial to loved ones we have lost.

My process is to look beyond the conspicuous; to remain engaged with my subject long enough to see the beauty in its geometry, in the energy of its movement or in the solitude of its stillness; that ephemeral moment when the light gets in.

Chad Lue Choy

PHOTOGRAPHER

Art of the Image