"Talbot was not taking a picture through the window of the world
outside as Niepce, Daguerre and many others did. Instead, Talbot chooses to
look at the window itself. He tells us that photography is about framing and
then shows us nothing but that frame. He suggests that photography offers a
window onto the world but chose nothing but that window." (Batchen, 2001:
10)
In our culture of image transparency,
rather than seeing through, I have found a way of looking at the image and looking at the act of seeing itself. I use
obscured glass, a semi-liquid medium, to
make these contact prints. I have discovered through the, partially revealed,
refracted image a way of creating a combination of passive and active vision. Raymond
Bellour sees this as the condition for what he calls ‘pensive vision’ or
self-reflective seeing. I am trying to defend the ability to create a distance
from the image against an immersive culture seemingly oriented towards the
destruction of individual imagination and the projections of pensive vision. By
challenging the viewers passive vision, I am focusing the attention to the
surface and materiality of the prints and their frozen, liquid like
refractions. These self-projections of
transparency have also revealed an organic cellular aspect hidden in ordinary
perception. The work is the medium of transparency creating an image of itself
in another medium of transparency.
Opacity V (2023) 29.8cm x 35cm silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity (2024) 29.8cm x 35cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity (2024) 29.8cm x 35cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity (2024) 29.8cm x 35cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity (2024) 29.8cm x 35cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity (2024) 29.8cm x 35cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity (2024) 29.8cm x 35cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity (2023) 30.5cm x 40.6cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity I (2023) 51.3cm x 35cm framed cyanotype contact print.
Opacity II (2023) 34.7cm x 34.7cm framed cyanotype contact print.
Opacity III (2023) 34.7cm x 34.7cm framed cyanotype contact print.
Opacity IV (2023) 34.7cm x 34.7cm framed cyanotype contact print.
Opacity V (2023) 34.7cm x 34.7cm framed cyanotype contact print.
Opacity VI (2023) 34.7cm x 34.7cm framed cyanotype contact print
Opacity VII (2023) 34.7cm x 34.7cm framed cyanotype contact print.
Opacity VIII (2023) 29.8cm x 35cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity IX (2023) 29.8cm x 35cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity X (2023) 29.8cm x 35cm framed silver gelatine contact print.
Opacity XI (2023) 25.5cm x 25.5cm cyanotype contact print framed behind obscured glass.
Brighton BA (Hons) Photography degree show installation.