Location: Trinidad & Tobago
I focus on documentary and mixed media manipulated photography. My work is both objective and subjective. It is humanistic in form and expressionistic at the same time. I tend to use the photograph of the ordinary man or woman, often the fisher or market vendor, as a symbol of an island class. I want to convey empathy, attention, consideration. I sometimes add to that reality by distorting and exaggerating aspects of their lives or obstacles that stand in their way to a new path. I fantasize by using illustrations and filters, textures, multiple photographs, and written words to tell a story based on my mental pictures and external influences. My art is swayed by daily concerns and global trends, observations and images I make on the street. When I manipulate my work, the outcome is a painterly, layered, textured and possibly mixed media photograph. It portrays the complexity of daily life and seeks to appeal to social change. The viewer has a lot to look at and so there is a tendency to stop to view the work more intently. That complexity engages the viewer, I believe, in the narrative and increases the chances of compassion or simply, a mutual appreciation of the observation. My documentary work is usually empathetic and designed to draw the viewer into the experience. See my website www.christinenortonphotography.com My email address is christine@christinenortonphotography.com or cnorton6@me.com
The Poui tree is indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago and arrives each year just before the rains. Its simply beautiful to see the yellow or pink pour flowers on the hills around us as it signals a renewal and the beginning of the rainy season.
daily noise...observations
unlinked observations.thoughts.humorous and intense.
slow down.observe.see
EXPERIENCE
Moko Jumbies (stilt-walkers) are seen as spirits. In my work I give them a healing role and I see them as messengers who protect the people.
The "Trini" Moko Jumbie, the ghost, and healer. Pouring healing energy over the people and their homes.
Who we are is rooted in tradition - African, Indian, Portuguese and even American. If you go to an Indo-Trinidadian celebration, you will see that we sell popcorn, pepper roti and corn soup in the same place.
“Fast cash, Fast Cash, Be A Winner”
This image is about how advertising overrides our intelligence. The piece is accompanied by a QR code which is scanned will create the back story.
Subtle interactions are sometimes all it takes....
The behaviour and body language we show sometimes underlies the story...
This photograph is accompanied by a QR code that gives the background to the historical change that we have witnessed among the Spiritual Baptist in Trinidad.
“Underwashers vs. Underwatchers”
It is said that "many hands make light work", but in this country, "many works make light hands".
We love nicknames. They create in the mind's eye other images of who we are, "Call me "Sadhu", he said. "Is because of meh long beard and where I live..Just in the front of the statue of the Siewdass Sadhu, the builder of the Temple in the Sea".
We love fun and game and we are creatures of habit. It's so bad that even our national bird flies out every morning from the Caroni Swamp to Venezuela and every evening flies back to roost as if to say this is the happiest place to be. Home is home!
The 260 acres of Savannah are the lungs of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. It is a place of artistic expression and recreation. As a people we have shard so many magical moments in this sweet botanical, with each other and the world. We celebrate and honour all who make this place the source of culture and good vibes year after year!" Words of Key the Band. This image is accompanied by a QR Code that plays the music called Savannah Grass.
La Brea - Home of the Pitch Lake - Wonder of the world. Centre of extraction of resources that fuel our economy, dumping ground of oil and gas and pollution affecting the lives of children. Time for a fix!
In the midst of La Brea, there is a tremendous character and resilience sitting on top of the sinking, shifting ground where pollution battles with water lilies that grow as a kind of beautiful symbol of a fight worth fighting.
"Why should India be "lost" when none of these villagers ever really knew it, and why not "continuing", why not the perpetuation of joy in Felicity and in all the other sounds of the Central Plain: Couva, Chaguanas, Charley Village?" This image is accompanied by a QR Code that says more about the context.
- Words of Derrick Walcott, Writer and Nobel Prize Winner for Literature
This image is accompanied by a QR code that shows the fisher throwing repeatedly his rod
Standing around Trini fishers on the jetty at Cocorite is often entertaining. As I shoot the sunset, I listen to their chatter and the way they tease each other. I think that our way of speaking is really an interesting signifier of place. In the midst of busy and sometimes stressful days, there is something calming about watching the patience and conviction of these men, their brotherhood and hearing their laughter against the sunset and the wind coming off the Gulf of Paria. Island resilience!
Dream for change and change will come...one day...in your dreams...:)! We talk a lot about our inter-island ferry service and wish for change to something more workable and perhaps luxurious. Balearia seems to get the picture...! This image is accompanied by a QR code that shows what the dream service might look like in video.
“Changing To Become Who My Soul Knows I Am”
16x24 hah definition image on fine art archival paper - 1/5
The Good, the Bad and the Opportunity for a new earth...This is a call to Action
“In the Season of the Poui I”
“In the Season of Poui II”
“In the Season of the Poui III”
“In the Season of the Poui IV”
“In the Season of the Poui V”
“In the Season of the Poui VI”
“In the Season of the Poui VII”
“In the Season of the Poui VIII”
“Tribute to Zingaytalala”
“Moko Healers”
“Tall Men Who "Fraid Nothin'"”
“Into the Fire”
“Cross-culture”
“A Me Too Moment”
“Too Much Hand!”
“Look How Far We Have Come”
“The Rum Shop”
“Beat Corruption”
“King Fisher™ of King's Wharf”
“Sadhu of Waterloo”
“Return of the Scarlet Ibis”
“Keeping Balance”
“Working the Savannah Grass”
“More Devils Than One”
“Losing in Pool”
“Winning in Pool”
“La Brea Brownfield”
“Flower Power La Brea”
“Villages on the Outside”
“Call Gary”
“Felicity in Perpetuity”
“The Patient Fisher”
“At Sunset - Cocorite, Trinidad”
“Fisher Friends”
“Call Lloyds”
“Change My Language, Change My Soul”
“Nothing Needs to Change”
“Change the Story”
“From the Home of the Pitch Lake”
“Dance of a Marine Spill”
“Uprooted”
“Making a Killing”
“Anything There?”
“Genuflection”
“Prayer for Redemption”
“Repeating patterns”
“Beautiful Bedrock”
“Think Air. Clean Air!”
“Oh Water! Salt Water.”
“The Scarlet Ibis ESS, at Home”
“Gifts from the Earth, Wrought by the Sea”
“A New Dawn: Cocal, Trinidad”
“Nature's Shade”
“Where the River Meets the Sea its Harmony”
“After the Storm”
“An Evening Grin, Nazare, Portugal”
