lith print

Obsolete and Discontinued in Cologne

The Obsolete and Discontinued project that I am participating in is exhibiting in Cologne, Germany this winter.

Led by the amazing London based photographer, printer, and alternative processes expert Mike Crawford the project celebrates the unique features and potential of analogue photography, using out of date and discontinued photographic papers, some of which were 20-30 years old.

The project features work by about 50 photographic artists all over the world, including members of the London Alternative Photography Collective. This is my image, a contact print from an iphone5s photograph.

Dennis’s Greenhouse – lith print onto Agfa Brovira paper

Exhibition details:

The exhibition runs from 4th November 2016-3rd February 2017.
It is open Monday – Friday from 9am-6pm by appointment
Location: schaelpic photokunstbar in the studio for media design
Schanzenstr. 27, 51063 Cologne

Here are some installation shots of the exhibition:

Installation Photograph by Mike Crawford

Installation photograph by Mike Crawford

Here’s a link to the website for the exhibition – it’s in German but Google can translate it: http://schaelpic.de/Stilllegung/Obsolete-Discontinued/

And here’s a pdf of the exhibition invite, featuring the very beautiful Chemigram by Almudena Romero: obsolete_ko_ln_einladung

Obsolete and Discontinued

I’ve recently been darkroom printing again in my bathroom, the first time in about 8 years.

London based photographer, printer, and alternative processes expert Mike Crawford put out a call to photographic artists interested in alternative processes to take part in a group project: Obsolete and Discontinued.

Mike had been given a lot of out of date paper by a customer – it had belonged to his late uncle – some of the papers were 20-30 years old. Mike distributed the papers to about 50 photographic artists all over the world, including members of the London Alternative Photography Collective.

For this project I took an image that I shot on my Iphone5s – Dennis’s Greenhouse.

DennissGreenhouse1000

Then following excellent advice from Mike I made a black and white negative onto inkjet acetate, from which I made contact prints onto out of date Agfa Brovira paper, and developed using out of date lith developer, and out of date stop and fix. Here’s what I ended up with:

nicolajaynemaskrey

Obsolete and Discontinued is premiered at the Revela T analogue photography festival at Vilassar de Dalt near Barcelona, from 20th May to 5th June.

Update – added 19th June 2016:

Here is a great video of the festival from photographer Borut Peterlin:

https://borutpeterlin.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/from-revela-t-the-festival-of-analogue-photography/

Here’s also some photographs from the Obsolete and Discontinued exhibition:

Left: Bret Sampson self portrait. Right; David Yates pinhole portrait by Andy Atkinson and Mike Crawford.

Installation photograph by Daniel Berrangé‎, my image is the second print from the right.

Interpretations extended – 1 week left to see it!

My solo exhibition at the Free Space Gallery, Kentish Town has been extended until the end of October, so there is one week left to see the work all together.

Address: First floor, 2 Bartholomew Road, London, NW5 2BX

Opening times: The exhibition is open Monday-Friday, 9am-6.30pm

Studying the passing of time from different emotional viewpoints, Interpretations features prints from 4 bodies of work:

Here are some images from each series:

Ophelia #2 – polaroid emulsion lift

Cornish Roads (hedges), in Flow: A30

As well as showing prints from each series, I am also showing a book of images for ‘this table is sad because no one is sitting at it’. You can also see the book online at blurb.

this table is sad because no one is sitting at it (Cambridge, morning)

Established in 2010 the Free Space Gallery works with local and national artists within the unique settings of the Kentish Town Health Centre and the Queens Crescent Practice, two NHS facilities in north London. The Free Space Gallery delivers a programme of free exhibitions, free creative workshops and events, an art therapy course and an artist in residence programme. All of their work is generously supported by the Kentish Town Improvement Fund.

Chasing Shadows – steps

Chasing Shadows in fLIP 29

Three images from my series Chasing Shadows have been selected for inclusion in the latest edition of fLIP magazine for London Independent Photography.

Offering a truly independent voice for photographic practice in London, fLIP is published 3 times per year to showcase member’s work and engage readers in a wider dialogue concerning diverse approaches to photography.

Here’s one of the images they selected:

Chasing Shadows – fence

Chasing Shadows is a night journey, a peaceful sleepwalk through a silent world bereft of people. As the evening light transforms the everyday into a dreamlike state, familiar urban landscapes disappear underneath resilient vegetation.

fLIP issue 29 (winter 2014/15) is available from the following stockists:

Online: You can order a copy for posting to you directly from London Independent Photography (paypal accepted)

Cardiff: Third Floor Gallery, 102 Bute Street, Cardiff CF10 5AD

London:

Photographers Gallery Bookshop, 16-18 Ramillies Street, London W1F 7LW

National Portrait Gallery Bookshop, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE

Whitechapel Gallery Bookshop, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX

Serpentine Gallery Bookshop, Queensborough Terrace, London W2 3XA

Artwords Bookshops, 65a Rivington Street, London EC2A 3QQ, and 20-22 Broadway Market, London E8 4QJ

Eastside Books, 166 Brick Lane, London E1 6RU

Photofusion, 17a Electric Lane, London SW9 8LA

Chasing Shadows in Budapest!

Chasing Shadows – wire window is featuring in the group exhibition ‘Stories’ by PH21 Gallery, Budapest.

Organised by PH21 Gallery, the exhibition is hosted by the Werk Stílus és Kommunikációs Akadémia

“Looking at a photograph may allow for understanding much about the past leading up to the captured moment; it may also enable the viewer to imagine the possible futures evolving from the frozen record of the here and now” Zsolt Batori

To see all of the photographs in the exhibition, read the juror’s review, or to buy a copy of the Exhibition Book click here

Chasing Shadows – wire window

The exhibition runs from 2nd – 22nd September 2014, open Monday to Friday 10am-6pm.

Werk Stílus és Kommunikációs Akadémia

Saletrom Loffice

Saletrom St. 4.

Budapest,

Hungary 1085

It’s about 3 minutes from the Rakozci Square Metro station of the new Metro line (Line 4) or about 10 minutes from Blaha (Line 2) or Corvin (Line 3).

PH21 Gallery is a contemporary exhibition space established in 2012 in Budapest, Hungary. The mission of the gallery is to provide group and solo exhibition opportunities and international exposure for contemporary photographers around the world. They have hosted a number of inspiring shows featuring talented photographers from all corners of the world.

Their website also functions as a virtual gallery, and all photographs included in their exhibitions are presented on the website.

Chasing shadows in RED – Hackney WickED 2014 documentation

A massive THANK YOU! to Hackney WickED and Lab Film Projects for including my work in this year’s programme – Very Moving Pictures.

To see the film in full click here – it’s best viewed at about 2-3m high. To look at the original photographs take a look at my website.

Here are a couple of photographs of my film as it was shown in the Cinema Lounge.

This version has a more constant pace than the rhythmic original (shown at Islington Exhibits 2013) and emphasises the built up layers that appear within the transitions.

Chasing Shadows (ivy / wire window transition) - Hackney WickED Cinema Lounge projection

Chasing Shadows (ivy / wire window transition) – at Hackney WickED / Lab Film Projects

One of my long term aims with this piece is to show it in places where it can interplay with it’s surroundings – such as passing car lights and street lights, real-world shadows, shapes etc. I’d not previously had a chance to test this idea, until now. But thanks to the quirks of photography I was able to pick up some images that also absorbed the ambient light – with some amazing effects! (I must stress that it didn’t look like this to the naked eye – more like the first picture above)

Chasing Shadows (house / steps transition) in red – at Hackney WickED / Lab Film Projects

I’m now even more keen to project this series in every-day places, so will start the hunt now ready for a good evening location that I can use when the clocks go back!

Chasing Shadows – for projection

For this series I used long exposures on 35mm black and white film to record the contemplative stillness of the night, the only movement in the wind blowing through leaves. I hand printed the images with lith developer on old fibre based paper to create single edition prints with a tactile quality and degraded aesthetic reminiscent of illustrative drawing or etching.

Winning a 2013 Islington Exhibits Artists Award, I was commissioned to rework the images into a large-scale projection installation. The projection paradoxically represents the frozen moments as transitory echoes of the original, each dissolving into the next in a slow, rhythmic loop.

Here is a lo-res version of the film for projection:

Documentation of the projection installation:

Chasing Shadows – large scale projection

To find out more about Chasing Shadows:

click here to find out about exhibitions or related work
or take a look at my website to see the full images (print and projection)

Chasing Shadows – rear projection tests

Here is my first test shot of Chasing Shadows rear-projected into a window space, so that it can be viewed by passers by from the street outside. Although very rough around the edges still, I especially like how the reflection of the lit window interacts with the piece, creating another (colourful, live) layer within the otherwise frozen monotone narrative.

Fingers crossed it’ll still work when I scale it up!

Chasing Shadows street level projection – test 01

This great article by The Mixed Reality Laboratory, Nottingham, UK was really helpful in working out suitable medium to project onto – I’d recommend it to anyone exploring with projection based installation.

New exhibition of Chasing Shadows prints!

The Maya Centre has invited Bekki Perriman and myself to exhibit our work as part of the launch of it’s new home in Islington!

The launch is on 19th September, with patrons Melissa Benn, and MP Jeremy Corbyn joining the celebrations.

The Maya Centre provides free long term counselling and psychological support to women who have experienced severe trauma through domestic violence, abuse in childhood or overseas in war and conflict. It is a not for profit specialist counselling service run by women, for women.

Bekki and I are both showing work related to our award winning exhibitions at Islington Exhibits 2013 – in my case it’s 5 of the original prints from the Chasing Shadows series.

Chasing Shadows – steps

To see more images from the series take a look at my website

The exhibition is available for viewing by appointment only, please contact me for more information.

Chasing Shadows at Islington Exhibits – documentation

Thanks to Rowan Arts and Islington Exhibits 2013 for giving me the opportunity; this installation is something I’d wanted to create for a long time.

Here are some documentary images, and some footage (without sound), and a record of viewer comments.

Images:

Chasing Shadows – time based installation – documentation 1

Chasing Shadows – time based installation – documentation 2

Some of the lovely comments left by visitors:

“Exquisitely, skilfully crafted photographs. I love the movement, the merging of one image and sense into another. You have a gift for finding such serene beauty in the easy to pass by scenes of everyday life.”

“I liked the rambling impact of nature against buildings. The urban mundanity and beauty, emphasised by plants, trees, shadows, walls, windows makes my senses dream.”

“It perfectly demonstrates how things are really out of our control.”

“Has a strangely compelling quality – the way the images move through a journey – and each time you look you find yourself drawn in further.”

“I love the way the prints almost pour into each other. It’s very hypnotic.”

“It is wonderful the way that very ordinary everyday things are transformed into something very mysterious.”

“I could feel the same dreamlike gaze that you must have had on your night walk. It took me back to memories of my own walks at night time – the larger than life plants, the dark leaves but bright flowers. For some reason I find the vegetation says more at night and that really came across through the texture and light and shade.”

Footage:

I had a great time meeting people and seeing/hearing their responses, and I learned so much more about the work from those interactions. Thanks everyone!

To see the full series take a look at my website. If you’re interested exhibiting or buying my work please click here to get in touch.

If you want to find out more about Islington Exhibits 2013 take a look at this video

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fLIP issue 29 (winter 2014/15) is available from the following stockists:

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Images:

Some of the lovely comments left by visitors:

Footage:

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