Standing alone, a photo is quite literally just a snapshot in time. It’s often difficult to get a sense of the real-world history that led to the moment captured in a picture, or of what you might see if you could ever look more deeply into the background and circumstances of a single image. While most photographers try to capture just an instant, a collage artist will typically cut, edit, and re-work a body of images to create wholly new "instances" – often with very different meaning than the originals.
 
My works are created using only traditional processes of both photography and collage. My photo collages are made up of original and found photo photographs, ephemera, old documents, personal mementos printed on layers of glass, or sheets of distressed metal.
 
Each assemblage is a unique, hand-built, three-dimensional construction that conveys a simple impression, but also opens up a range of deeper interpretations; stories and meaning that become apparent when you look carefully into them and through them.
 
Hugh Shurley (2006)