Mac Bryla, Sydney, Australia

Every portrait needs a subject. Every subject tells a story.

Some of my subjects are numbers. For those I build the tools first, and the toolmaking is as much a part of the process as the experimenting that follows. Every piece begins with raw material, data recorded in the real world, and ends up somewhere else entirely.

Some of my subjects are objects. Things that have been kept a long time, and have kept something in return. Every scratch and worn edge is a memory locked in. Seen closely enough, they give it all up, and what used to live in a drawer lives on the wall as memory instead.

Some of my subjects are places. Somebody imagined each one before it existed and decided what it should be. I try to capture the architecture and the intention behind it.

Before any of this I spent a long time in technology. It is why I build my own tools, to explore, to experiment, to create.

Portraits by Mac Bryla.