Biography

Derek Hayes (b. 1977) is an artist working with photography. Born and raised in Ontario, Canada, Derek now calls Maine home.  

Artist Statement

There’s a local expression that someone who wasn’t born in Maine is “from away”.  I’m “from away” and the notion of seeing from the outside drives my practice.  I’m interested in examining themes of isolation and connection and our collective relationship with the passage of time. I value photography as a tool for noticing the familiar and showing its underlying peculiarity. I strive to make images that seem approachable at first glance, where mystery and the uncanny are revealed on closer reading and possibly unanswerable questions are pondered. My vision is rooted in realism, the world as it is offered, but my photographs merge reality with artifice and construction.