I've been one sort of photographer or another for over four decades. Since 2016, most of my energy has gone into the Duration series, which is prominent on my website (pharris.art). The Duration pictures are about change and the passage of time. Care is taken to photograph the same scene over and over as “objectively” as possible as change occurs over minutes or hours. The pictures are then assembled in the computer in the order they were taken, and printed on large roll paper so that the process of change over time can be experienced in various ways. The Duration process is described in more detail on the website and in the 2020 talk that's linked to the website.

In the last year, I've begun moving in a new direction. While I'm still fascinated by processes of change at various time scales, I had a realization in January of 2024 that it was time to allow myself to relax some of the rules and parameters I had set for myself at the beginning of the Duration series. My recent intention has been to allow more of the feelings of the observer (me) into the pictures: to break away from the “objective” grid forms I had been using for so long. I haven't completely walked away from the Duration working method, but I'm making room for something new.

The new work, which has developed over the last year, is provisionally titled Boundless. I'm allowing myself to edit and shape the pictures much more directly and subjectively than in the earlier body of work. Now I don't feel compelled to use all the frames I shoot, or to arrange them in order of exposure, or to arrange them in an orderly pattern, or to show all of each frame. Some pictures are larger or are given more prominence. I now use tools in the computer to emphasize or deemphasize various qualities in the component parts and in the whole picture.

The result is much more varied, and much more painstaking—there are so many more decisions to make along the way. I often make quite a few iterations before I understand what the material wants to say. This is a much more intuitive, uncertain way of working, but I feel like there's a genuine pathway here. It's very delightful to feel like open to something fresh, to growing and taking chances.