Interview
Andrew Paranavitana
Andrew Paranavitana is a Melbourne-based, photographic artist, represented globally by art agencies and galleries. Andrew has developed his distinctive style of photography over a decade long practice, allowing him to delve into colour, texture and concept, creating a folio of work that is both connective and evocative. After completing a Diploma of Photo Imaging at RMIT, Melbourne, Andrew worked as a professional photographer, specialising in architectural shoots. His passion always remained with photographic art and is now his main focus and career.
"I have always aimed to capture the world as we see it and present it in a way that we may not. I want the viewer to connect with my work and see something familiar, or uncomfortable that, due to its familiarity, needs to be investigated. I want viewers to feel seen and understood and to know that others have also experienced this, too."
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I have always been the photographer, long before it became a career. Family trips, birthday parties or any event made to remember, the camera was handed to me time and time again. Apparently, I just knew what to do. Later in life when I embarked on my own travels, I realised I was missing one thing - the camera! Before I knew it, I was globe-hopping with a film loaded Canon SLR and rolls upon rolls of film. I captured everything I saw and visual documentation became a way of life. This was when I first realised my true sense of creativity and passion. I never needed souvenirs or memoirs of my trips; my photos vividly captured the true essence of my experiences and kept them alive. Time-travelling forward a decade or two, that Canon film loader had morphed into a Canon digital SLR. I had travelled to every continent, been awe stuck by the wonders of the world and developed folios of work which were exhibited and sold across the globe. It was around this time I was approached by an American company that was expanding into Australia. They were looking for photographers to shoot properties and work alongside them during their expansion. That company was Airbnb and that moment was the beginning of my journey into architectural photography.
I went on to complete a Diploma of Photo Imaging at RMIT Melbourne and slowly but surely began to grow my business, client by client. Which brings us to present day and this website. I'm still working with Airbnb and still travelling whenever possible. This has been a great adventure so far and I'm excited to see where it takes me next. I'm one of the lucky few who can say I love what I do. My heart has always remained with photographic art creation, and in 2023, I returned to my creative roots and reignited the passion and energy that has always been associated with this area of my career. I'm now editing new pieces and developing my skills on a weekly basis. Around the same time, I was approached by Access Art Studio NYC to represent me and sell my works onto a global audience of collectors and commercial clients. From here, I plan to travel on a regular basis, expanding my folio of images and creating full time in the years to come.”
What inspires you?
“I am inspired by the world every day. It’s people, places, landscapes and cultures are a visual feast and sensory overload at times. Simple things that often get taken for granted or go unnoticed can be a virtual playground to a person with a camera in hand. Travel has allowed me the opportunity to experience this across numerous cities, countries and landscapes; to take in cultures and learn first hand how our differences can actually attribute to who we are, inadvertently connecting us to each other and creating a rich tapestry of life that we cannot experience on our own, Carl Jung has been a huge inspiration. His lifework into understanding the human personality, the psyche and it's conscious and subconscious components and the archetypes of our unconscious mind have been a driving force within my own creative process, personal development and healing.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“My art strongly focuses on the psychology of dark emotional states of mind and has been inspired by my own experiences, trauma, and processes of healing. Within this focus, I have divided the work into two main categories: darkness and light. My work explores the dualities found between the two, in opposition to each other or in co-existential crises. I have a strong interest in psychology and spirituality, and the apparent connection between the two; psychology defining our fear-based emotions and the ways trauma can affect them, and spirituality highlighting ways in which to heal and develop from the very same trauma and the effects this has on our darker self. My art has innately nurtured these traits. I did not intentionally set out to be an expresser of emotion or need a way to channel my past traumas and memories, morphing them into permanent and tangible things to reflect on later in life. It happened in a self-creative way, without the intention to express, only to create. The process itself was natural and free-flowing, from the initial photo capture all through the editing, to the final image. I never know when day will be turned to night, or a crisp, clean image will take on heavier textures or blur into abstraction. I submit to what my subconscious mind needs at the time, as part of the creative process.”
How would you describe your work?
“The physical appearance of my work is a depiction of the emotive states of mind that we often experience throughout life. The darker the image, the heavier and more intense the emotional expression within the piece. I often delve into themes of adversity, fear, and the overcoming thereof, the eternal quest for freedom and hope, and a search for answers amongst timelines of experience and trauma that can twist and shape us into who we become. When I am not shining a light on these darker moments, I find myself swept up in an air of nostalgia. Memoirs of childhood years that sit on the lighter side of the emotional spectrum. Less traumatic and challenging, rather laced with a familiar sense of warmth and safety. Periods when I have felt protected and at peace. These two main veins of art come directly from my childhood and have come together to make me who I am today. They combine to create a huge source of inspiration and have been paramount in my personal and artistic development, which in turn is a big part of my healing process. My photography has granted me the chance to represent these emotions and create a mood that evokes questions from the viewer and quite often, also from myself. An infinite loop of creativity that spurs healing, which in turn inspires creativity.”
Which artists influence you most?
“Outside of my own experiences, I have been influenced by a variety of artistic modalities. Film, music, and written material have played a huge role in shaping my artistic vision, and my exploration of psychology opened a new door, allowing me to combine this artistic vision with explored personal experience, to create in the way that I do.
Recording Artists: Massive Attack – Timeless production and dark sounds, themes surrounding darker emotions and states of mind, addiction, and the need for self-awareness and free thinking. Political in their messages, never vapid or without meaning.
Zero 7 – Calming and beautifully peaceful sounds, with intricate production techniques fusing electronica and instruments. Themes around love, warmth, and summertime.
SAULT – British collective of mostly unknown members, creating genre-bending sounds that produce as both uplifting and dark music based around themes of rising above pain and adversity, finding hope, and breaking free of personal prisons. Unique production, and deeply profound lyrics.
Film & Directors: David Lynch - Surrealistic set design and direction.
Denis Villeneuve - Direction and cinematography.
Guillermo Del Toro - Direction, postproduction toning, cinematography, and thematic influences.
Traditional Artists: Claude Monet - lighting, brush stroke, colour palette: Arius, Impression Sunrise.
Renoir - Colour palette, brush stroke: The Doges Palace.
Salvador Dali - Surreal, disturbing, and unsettling imagery: The Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition.
Antoni Gaudi - Art Nouveau style merging nature and architecture to create organic structures that appear to have their pulse. His creativity and originality made him a standout: Casa Battlo, Casa Mila.
Authors: Edgar Allen Poe - The Raven.
The Fall of The House of Usher. The dark themes surrounding this piece have influenced multiple images based on crows and ravens.
Jonathan Tropper - The Book of Joe Themes surrounding family and its negative impact on our life and making peace with our past. A great study into guilt, shame, grief, and self-acceptance.
Photographers: Arthur Tress - Black and white photographic series with dark themes and visually arresting work.
Andreas Gursky - Large format photography with intricate details.”
“My art strongly focuses on the psychology of dark emotional states of mind and has been inspired by my own experiences, trauma, and processes of healing.”
What is your creative process like?
“I photograph scenes, items and scapes that I am innately drawn to. At times it is the light or colours presented to my eye, and other times it can be cracks in a wall or dust on a tabletop that brings my attention to a moment or detail needing to be captured. One of the first things I notice is the balance between shadow and light, often leaning into shadow to guide my eye on composition and scene building. When I capture a photo, I never know where it will lead me, or how the final image will look. My overall vision is to capture the world as we see it and present it in a way that we may not. I never place restriction what this means for the final image or my creative process. I can lose myself in the editing process, allowing my subconscious to take the wheel and lead me to the final image. Whenever this happens, the result is vastly different to anything I had previously thought of. These pieces hold a special place in my heart, as they have come from within, and are what I like to dub 'self-creating', with little resistance or fear from myself.
Digital manipulation of my images with texture and toning has given me the chance to convey stories, sometimes obscure and always open to the viewer’s interpretation. My own story lies within each work, but the viewer can decide to either digest what is seen, or create their own journey from the piece, should it call to them. My use of textures has developed into a strong and distinctive editing style and allows the sense of mood and thought to be brought through in ways that I otherwise cannot express. I use scratches and cracks to represent pain and hardship. Shadowing and older landscapes and structures convey a sense of my darker past. I have utilised rich colour and toning in most of my images to create more depth, drawing a depictive pathway to the depths of the subconscious mind, where many of these memories, traumas, and pain can remain hidden and unaddressed for most of our lives. I play with colour and tone, adding in and often overlaying textures until I can visually represent the mood or message within the piece. Everything is a pictorial representation of emotive states of mind. I can only consider an image complete when I truly feel these emotions, experiences or traumas have been embedded into the image and can be both seen and felt.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“It's our role to be as unique, original and expressive as our practice calls us to be. Finding ways to create and communicate our messages, themes and depicting things through our art. We need to strive to achieve greater heights and challenge ourselves to be better each day and month of our career. I feel it is up to artists to reach out to society through our works, finding ways to communicate that may not have been known to viewers of the work. Giving a voice to those who may not have one, or finding an emotive response in someone that has been left in the dark their whole lives. Relatability and understanding are two things we crave and need as human beings. I feel that art should be able to reach out to people with these two basic needs, helping them to feel more seen and heard. As the world and technology advances, it may become harder to be seen and heard on a whole. The introduction of AI and its ability to learn, develop and create on its own can either be seen as a threat, or as something that can drive human artists to be better. To develop their styles, evolve and rise above the mundane and ordinary. Be unique, seek your own path and bring originality back to the forefront. We need to show the world that we are all different, individual beings that can come together through shared experience, emotion and art. Bring our uniqueness together and turn that into our superpower.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“I have an ongoing artistic representation with Access Art Studio in NYC. I have a new exhibition is currently in the works, set to open in mid 2025.”
Website: andrewpara.com
Instagram: @andrewparaphoto
