Narcissa, Chromogenic Print (approx. 18"x22")

biography Andrew Hammerand is a photographic-based artist, and was born in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Andrew received his BFA in fine art photography from Arizona State University in 2008 and currently lives and works in Mesa, Arizona. His photographic work has been exhibited in various solo, juried, and group exhibitions, and most recently he was curator of the traveling exhibition, "South Phoenix through the Eyes of Youth". statement Working in both serial and sequence-based bodies of work, I create photographs intuitively in a manner that develops through encountering unexpected views and experiences. Making images allows me to engage with the immediate world, rather than creating preconceived views or tableaux. Images I create often stem from quiet observations pulled from everyday occurrences and an ongoing attempt to capture the inspirational awe that is a direct result of observing beauty as an aesthetic experience. Subjects pictured often exhibit a reluctant hope for something more, a longing created by the photographs themselves. Within both my new and recent series of photographs, I acknowledge the inescapable grasp photography holds in regards to images created from the cultural landscape surrounding society: the democratic and seemingly arbitrary image making processes rooted in the likes of Eggleston and Friedlander. My photographs respect the recent past as well as the contemporary photography world, often echoing and reacting to standards within photography's culture itself. Setting aside the use of single images for thoughtfully sequenced groups of images allows me to assign meaning through a visual syntax, dynamically altered by the subtle shifts of signifiers within each photograph. Through the use of photographic form, signs, gesture and reference, my work suggests a comfortable hesitation, inciting a common poetry of the photographic language. However concrete and terminal these images appear to the viewer, I intend to reveal and pose rhetorical questions with indications of brief revelations.

contact andrew.hammerand@gmail.com unsuspecting visitors [blog] links Aaron Rothman Andrea Calo Andrew Phelps Betsy Schneider Brad Kuhl Brent Hirak Bucky Miller Charles Anthony Darr Christian Widmer Christopher Colville Claire Warden Jay Hardin Jessica Todd Harper J.P. Flores Katie Lehman Michael Lundgren Michael Max McLeod Paho Mann Spencer King William LeGoullon Center for Creative Photography Conscientious Dragnet Magazine Pravus Gallery