Javier Griffey

Javier Griffey

Untitled (Scene), 2024
Inkjet print
10 1/4" x 15 1/4"
Courtesy of the artist

Javier Griffey is a 2025 MFA candidate in the School of the Arts at Columbia University. Griffey’s work has been featured in a recent group exhibition in the Low Library at Columbia University, “Coney Island, Spectacular” in the Rare Manuscripts at Columbia University, and “Currents” group show in 2024 summer group show at SK Gallery. He received his BA from Moravian University in 2023.

To try to capture a thought, a feeling, an experience in a photograph is nearly impossible. Reality becomes skewed with every click of the shutter leaving remnants of what once was. I am interested in the fabricated narrative a photographer embraces from start to finish. How much of reality can I bend to tell you the truth? My truth.

As much as a photograph represents reality, I refuse to believe it to be enough. Photography has its limitations - No sound, no video, no touch, no smell... it bases itself solely on what is happening. It allows us to visually step into fragmented realities that existed only for that moment; yet a person with a camera decided to preserve it. We are forced to analyze it... to make sense of a moment that would otherwise pass by.

My practice is an exploration of this idea of what it means to take a photograph. Why must I take a portrait of you to understand you better? I photograph to remember, to analyze, to understand, and lastly to forget.