Chess Composition #9

These photographs create a discussion about the symbol of the game chess in the past and present. Instead of deconstructing the nature of the pieces, I work with the inherited meanings that had been assigned to them since their creation and use the photographic medium to signify the other meanings which are often overlooked. When the pieces are removed from the chessboard, they are presented in a different view and context. In these photographs, they take a political meaning through the arrangement while still maintaining one of the most notable traits of the game: conflict. The goal is to create images of chess that can stimulate vision and testify to both the game and our history and present.

The photographs were made in the studio to ensure consistency in lighting. In each one, the chess pieces usually take different positions according to their values on the chessboard. Through anthropomorphisation, the pieces are abstractions of the proletarian and the ruling class, and the changes in the background are made to distinguish different stages of a conflict between these two classes, from the beginning to the end. As chess is one of the oldest games on Earth and its age is even older than some of the religions, the conflicts between these two groups have existed for centuries. At the moment in the world, this conflict is notable, important more than ever and I find that chess pieces have the potential to be related to the current state of the world. They allow me to bring a more universal meaning into my photographs instead of discussing my experiences.