Scott Ross

As a self-taught photographer with a background in cognitive psychology, I've always been interested in perception -- the mind's ability to interpret sensory information, even when it may be vague or unfamiliar. I've also always loved abstraction in art, in large part because of the way it interacts with our innate tendency to impose some kind of meaning onto what we see. In my “Reflections” series, I reproduce and combine photographs to create intricate abstract compositions. In these images, mirrored reflections transform original subjects into entirely new shapes and patterns, often freeing them from any remaining vestiges of representationalism, resulting in pure abstraction. At the same time, their symmetry produces a kind of Rorschach-test effect: viewers may perceive identifiable objects within the images, despite knowing them to be illusory. In this way, the work explores questions about the nature of seeing and how we interpret what we perceive. BIO: Scott Ross grew up in the idyllic suburbs of Westchester county, lived on the west coast for ten years, spent most of 2009 in Prague, and currently resides in NYC. He has a master’s degree in educational psychology and works in education administration. He is also an avid musician, brewer, and slow food enthusiast.