My work is primarily formalist in approach. Using traditional silver-based photographic films and papers, I make hand-crafted artworks which emphasize formal qualities and the physical materials themselves. Working with multiple component photographs allows me to expand the language of still photography beyond the limitations of single-frame imagery. Fragmentation of the subjects in the early stages of the work (while photographing) allows for interpretative reconstruction in the late stages of the work (during assemblage and presentation). In some resulting artworks, the component photographs were all shot at the same time in the same general location, to reveal various facets or aspects of a subject.

In other works, and recently more commonly, the different component photographs within one assemblage may have been shot many miles and/or years apart. This working method allows not only various possibilities of composition and formal qualities, but also various combinations and possibilities of content and subject matter, meaning, and interpretation.

My photographs are typically as much about themselves (each as a unique, constructed physical object) as they are about the subjects in the photographs. My work attempts to bring attention to the art object itself, to the physical and formal qualities of the materials I use, to the content and subjects contained within, and to the variety of options and possibilities that photography itself presents.

In my current series, I am making composite photographs, mostly in an overall square format, which each include both color component photographs and silver gelatin (B&W) component photographs. Most of these artworks contain photographs which I have shot many miles (and in most cases, many years) apart, which allows for quite varied combinations of composition, subject matter, and content. Some of these squares are figure studies, and some involve other subjects such as landscape, cityscape, or other man-made stuff. I think this is a dynamic format which allows for a great variety of possibilites of the "composite photograph," so I anticipate continuing this series for as long it it keeps me excited about working.

So far I have made more than 60 square composite (mixed B&W and color) photographs. This series of squares is still ongoing, but I am now also making some rectangular works in the same mode, by using photographs from my archives and by shooting new images for specific artworks. I have chosen the "golden mean rectangle" size of 25" x 40" for these rectangular works, and this variance in format gives me some additional options of composition and formal considerations.

- David Underwood, 2009