Liam Valyani-Perera Is Finally Perfect

Liam Valyani-Perera

A highly abstract landscape photograph created with motion blur, likely intentional camera movement, depicting a blurred olive-green top section suggesting land. A horizontal band of darker, smudged greens and browns in the middle represents a distant shoreline with faint tree silhouettes, reflected in the light blue, highly diffused water below. Bright white and yellow diagonal light streaks cut across the scene, creating a sense of dynamic movement and a dreamlike, ethereal quality.

My life is meaningless if I can’t achieve perfection. I have no value in and of myself so I must create it. I am delusional, this is something I really think I can do. Of course I can't. Of course I can't make every single atom neatly arranged in such an undeniable way as to stake my claim on the world to every person that glances upon my masterpiece. And yet, I find myself in a place where I am trying to do that very impossible task.

Even if I do achieve perfection, will it be meaningful? Does perfection in and of itself have meaning? I stay up late at night having manic dreams of being lauded by every single living human on this planet. I am scared of being forgotten. It would cement my anxieties that I am worthless as true. How could I be so idiotic? I need to impart this perfect idiocy of mine into an image. I need to bare a little bit of my soul.

A self-portrait will only be performance. My body will be posed, my expression will be chosen carefully, the scenery will be managed. I will be artificial in a way that is not true to life. Artifice is not perfection. My body is not my soul. How then do I photograph someone that isn’t there? I have to share a little piece of my inner world. If the viewer can see exactly what I see then maybe they can see me. That is what imagemaking is about, or so I’m told. I am also told that is not the case at all.

I don’t understand photography. There is something ephemeral that is always outside of my grasp. I do understand myself. I know what makes me tick. Truthfully, I don’t think I’m very interesting, but I suppose that works well all the same. Maybe other people aren’t that interesting either and in the gap between myself, the photo, and the audience we can all be quite dull together. Maybe that’s perfect in its own way.

About The Artist

A dramatically lit close-up portrait of a young individual with messy dark hair and round wire-frame glasses. They stare directly at the viewer with a surprised or confused expression, featuring wide eyes, slightly raised eyebrows, and an open mouth, against a deep black background.

Liam Valyani-Perera

Liam Valyani-Perera is a half-man, half-beast. The world melts him down everyday and leaves only a pile of goop. Bravely, he reforms himself each night and heads to bed. His work as a photographer and writer mention none of this. Instead it often delves into his many anxieties about the world in both how he perceives it and how it perceives him. Sometimes he likes to do weird stuff to hopefully weird people out. Despite this many describe his images as serene and relaxing. This makes him nervous that maybe he isn’t doing a good job, but he also likes his pictures so it’s probably fine.

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