Idris Khan

Born :

1978

The photograph is a tool used to take you back to a certain point in one's life, to remember a face or a place you once stood. I feel there is always something quite melancholic about a photograph.

tools faces remember

It is hard to avoid the aspect of time when producing what ones sees as a photograph.... my images [are] something that is not a frozen moment, but an image made up of many moments and that is created over time rather than taken.

frozen moments taken

Don't be put off by someone telling you that your image looks too digital; maybe that's the way it's supposed to look.

digital looks way

Recently, I can't seem to take a straight photograph without thinking that what I am photographing won't be the final image - like the world in front of me is not good enough or something.

not-good-enough finals thinking

I always wanted to make an abstract photograph. I would photograph walls, sports interiors, marks on the walls people made. Even looking back it makes so much sense. It's like it was a fight against the photograph.

wall fighting sports

A lot of people in the art world hate to use the word "Photoshop", like it's cheating or easy or something. I say bollocks to that - for me, it's my tool, my paintbrush if you like, and lets me create my own visual language.

hate cheating art

I'm not a political artist in any way, but if an idea takes me somewhere or something is emotionally impactful, I find a way to make a painting that encapsulates it.

political artist ideas