Ammar Khammash
‘Fossils of Time and Light’
8 March to 31 March 2011
Ammar Khammash is continuously curious of, and absorbed by his surroundings and its context in time. This collection of photographs of children bathing in a hot spring are more than a moment that has passed, they are evocative of the energy and the mystery of existence and non existence. The works show at Jacaranda Images from the 8th March.
Still photography, contrary to the nature of ‘still’ is continuously changing its purpose, meaning and definition. The further camera technology develops, it affects producing reality in terms of motion and 3D possibilities. Photography has moved closer towards abstraction and art by increasingly getting rid of its documentation responsibilities.
A still photograph is all about making a fossil out of time and light. Time is light. A photograph is a trace fossil or an embossing of light, a sort of a death mask. In all photography the embossing outlives the life that has produced them. It is eternal and the only proof that a second existed. It celebrates the preciousness and fragility of a once living moment.
This collection of photographs was taken in a very remote, little known hot spring with super natural healing powers. In this slightly radioactive water, bathing children from the surrounding villages have by now grown into different people.
Ammar Khammash
Ammar’s insatiable curiosity pushes him to seek connections in life across a variety of disciplines including the fields of architecture, art, photography, botany, paleontology, archeology, and geology.
Khammash established Ammar Khammash Architects, a practice in Amman that encompasses more than just architecture; rather, his company helps clients with circulation and landscape management, building design, and interior design. He is one of Jordan’s most noted architects, and also an accomplished artist and photographer. Since 1990, he has mounted a number of solo exhibitions of his paintings in Jordan, India, the United States, and Germany.
He has been involved with a number of significant historical-architectural constructions and renovations in Jordan that combine his architectural skills with his passion for historical preservation.
