“This may not be pure chaos after all … our lives contain actions, people and things connected by a tenuous, transient fine string of connection that has nothing to do with modern times but has been a connecting tissue – a sense-making mechanism gifted us by our ability to perceive, from the beginning of cognition.” – Adolf Portman

Andrew George’s Analogies & Metaphors is a depiction of the interplay between sensory cues and introspection, a visual exploration of the pathways by which we create meaning. More akin to abstract painting than traditional photography, the sequences invite us to follow threads of line and color that overlap and extend onto one another, creating maps, flow, and patterns of possibility that shift the potential to the actual.  

With subjects comprising everything we might pass by on a slow walk, including the shadow of a twig, reflections on shop windows, or an obscured flyer curled by the wind, George has created a visual field of subtlety and nuance. Individual images act as puzzle pieces; but as we perceive connections, we find unexpected direction and form. Moments of light, shapes and tones that might be overlooked in a passing glance find focus and recognition when guided by our attention and intuition. 

Sequences include Book 4, which feels like a slow dance in a blue melody, evolving from a harlequin skyline to sleepy tropical waves to a homespun fence under reclamation by its natural surroundings. 

Vertical Book 10 has the glow of a candle dripping into a dream of pinks and reds, blinding us with the negative space of shadow then shifting, exposing undulating patterns where light once again asserts itself.

George’s work asks questions about different types of consciousness and how various outcomes can be reached from a single starting point. His method is this: he is on an ambling journey to capture fleeting moments of beauty, with an aversion to capturing the obvious, or repeating the clichés of convention. The work demands new ways of seeing to shake us from the numbness of traditional imagery and overload of visual data that dominate our current times.  

While the technique is analog, George’s vision is modern: his subject’s depiction is secondary to its emotional impression. All imagery is captured in-camera, as shot, free of any photo manipulation tools.   

This artist’s objective has always been to question what he’s looking at and to extract elements of beauty that others may overlook. This process takes him to quiet alleyways, bustling urban streets, forest trails, and even through hospital corridors - where in his last project, Right, before I die, he encountered 20 seemingly unremarkable men and women who, on their deathbeds, had overcome their fear of dying. Indeed, the theme of finding beauty in unexpected places has been a recurring theme in George’s work. 

His lush, saturated and abstract pictures are loaded with intention, to take the viewer inward and to contemplate the infinite possibilities of connection: one image connects to another in a sequence, illustrating the bridge between the unconscious and the conscious. Analogies & Metaphors reflects George’s own internal process, but its purpose is to present the viewer the opportunity to create meaning and connection.