In his second solo exhibition with the gallery Haymes presents color photographs of his two children that employ the use of long exposures to reveal precise abstractions of their features. The images convey a suspension of time and reality, rather than capturing a specific moment, movement or expression. Faces and bodies are blurred and dynamic, revealing subtleties of light and darkness and distorted physical contours that are almost dreamlike in their manifestation.

Frequently conveying unsettling, turbulent and restless subtexts, these images bely conventional approaches to portraiture. Drawing on the technical and philosophical explorations of photographers such as Erwin Blumenfeld and Man Ray, Haymes’s kinetic compositions form haunting and vulnerable, yet luminous and intimate, surreal tableaux.

Haymes’s continued exploration of his children as subjects in his photographs examines the role of identity in the private domestic sphere and public spheres. His work exposes the emotional divide and/or closeness between subject and photographer (regardless of the formality or closeness of the relationship), and presents the viewer with an alternate perspective on traditionally linear descriptions of life’s story and the passage of time.

Born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, Haymes currently lives and works in New York City. The artist’s solo and group exhibitions include, among others, XIV at Bespoke Gallery in 2006; A Certain Likeness, at Gallery W 52, New York, in 2006; Familiar at The Journal Gallery, New York, in 2006; and a solo exhibition at Fenix Gallery in Moscow, Russia in 2004. In 2007, Haymes released a book of photographs entitled Between Dog and Wolf (Nieves), which documents the lives of a close-knit group of American teenagers. Haymes’s work has appeared in numerous magazines and publications and he most recently photographed the cover for the February, 2008 issue of Art Review.