Dumais, Doug

Doug Dumais uses photography to elucidate the temporal, spatial, and cultural inter-relations that are active in physical or immaterial spaces. He starts by carefully observing locations undergoing drastic changes such as construction sites and buildings slated for demolition, or navigating intangible spaces found in fictional texts and digital software. In the studio, Dumais reintroduces his images into a state of change by physically or digitally altering them. He juxtaposes photographs with historical paintings, layers them with poetry, or adds objects like book pages or construction materials. This process draws out hidden narratives within his images and transforms them into material conduits for abstract concepts such as time, meaning-making, or the influence of one’s surroundings on the formation of identity. This approach materializes the invisible connections that exist between places and their inhabitants, artworks and their viewers, or texts and their readers. Dumais’ manipulated photographs of the ambient spaces humans occupy, traverse, or overlook are footholds in a process to become more deeply aware of the overlapping histories and subjectivities present within the built environment.