Starting point: A camera on a tripod in a fixed, single position facing one empty wall in urban Porto in Portugal, while Chabot is filming and photographing passing random shadows of individuals.

Through the surface of its walls, a building declares both its autonomy and its participation in an urban space. This wall surface presents us with an urban theatre of shadow actors. Headlights and signal lights of passing cars, buses and trams paint shadows of anonymous passing people onto the wall in a subtle spectrum of delicate chromatic strokes. Fragments of real people’s daily lives and body language are transformed by their shadows into an abstract fictional narrative. Silhouettes flare up in layers, back and forth, using this wall like a painters canvas.

What is a shadow? Why do shadows enchant us? Shadows are attached to all things. All that is required to view a shadow is a little bit of light. This work invites us to remember that we exist within the realm of duality: First, our physical, visible person, blended into our everyday life, which holds all of our characteristics, experiences, memories and ideals. Second is our invisible “shadow person” with all its as yet unfulfilled potentials and dreams, both positive and negative. The shadows symbolise the hidden and un-manifested alter ego. In them reside all of our essential emotions, through personal and external options and choices, about what we have become, have not become, or are yet to become in the future.

The technique used in this series intends to explore the mysteries of light and expand the offerings it presents to a photographer, by pondering ways in which to harness light for alternative chiaroscuro applications, without sacrificing the truth of the subject matter.

2021 Galeria Adorna in Porto, Portugal. In-visible exhibition canceled.

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