the camera suture

new york redux

2012-01-09T16:58:00.004Z

traditional 35mm film. bleach. glass. debris.

lily/graph

2012-01-05T09:29:00.007Z

thermal loci for normal single stars on a three-colour photometric system ...
35mm film. no photoshop.

visible light / the sun

2011-12-30T13:15:00.005Z

traditional 35mm film. as yet unprinted.
data: visible light / surface temperature in thousands of degrees centigrade

objection

2011-12-24T18:01:00.005Z

approx 40cm x 50cm R-type analog print from 35mm.

red river shore

2011-12-21T11:21:00.002Z

modern love

2011-11-24T10:31:00.013Z

this lovely magazine/book arrived yesterday. it's from dayfour, and it's about 'modern love'. my angle was the often misunderstood 'one parent family'. as well as including some fine photographers, it opens with one of my favourite lyrics, stephin merritt's (the magnetic fields) 'the book of love' and closes with pushkin's impossibly beautiful 'when i enfold your waist, my dove'...

stella

2011-11-04T09:29:00.006Z

my friend, my 'surrogate' mother, grandmother and aunt, my patient model (as above), my comforter, teacher, confidante, a lover of birdsong and roses and all the small treasures of life. a constant in my world like no other. my unforgettable and beautiful friend, stella.
16 December 1916 to 04 November 2011

the milky way

2011-11-01T16:06:00.003Z

35mm expired film. found material.

Carr Gomm Portraits

2011-10-19T13:50:00.004+01:00

A small selection of my portraits commissioned by The Carr Gomm Society who provide support and housing for, amongst others, the homeless, lonely and mentally ill members of the community.

les voleurs

2011-10-05T07:57:00.004+01:00

the sorrowful mysteries

2011-09-14T07:51:00.004+01:00

taken from a series produced from the contents of the home of a former priest. one half of his house was filled with religious material, the other half with pornography.
16mm cine film and 35mm transparency. no photoshop.

test

2011-09-05T14:31:00.003+01:00

12x16. cine film + 35mm. (between the bars)

i blinked once and it was gone

2011-08-26T12:13:00.001+01:00

35mm cine film. mixed media.

the three of us

2011-08-08T07:58:00.001+01:00

ink. tape. 35mm film.

'rough translation' demo

2011-08-01T08:36:00.004+01:00

video project for my friends in paris, 'rough translation'

untitled

2011-07-26T16:12:00.000+01:00

film etching.

whorl

2011-07-22T08:07:00.002+01:00

35mm cine film.

ju dou

2011-07-19T09:14:00.002+01:00

special thanks to my friend, martin, for discovering the source of these chinese characters which i randomly etched into this negative years ago. the picture now has a completely new meaning for me.

Saatchi top ten 'portraiture'

2011-07-18T11:39:00.002+01:00

Many thanks to Rebecca Wilson at the Saatchi Gallery for this.

the flickering

2011-07-17T17:49:00.000+01:00

roves and roams

2011-07-14T07:27:00.003+01:00

barefoot

2011-07-10T13:33:00.003+01:00

single edition fibre print. 17.5 x 26.5 image on 24 x 30 cm paper.

how do particles adhere. plate 2

2011-07-06T11:56:00.000+01:00

how do particles adhere. plate 15

2011-07-05T13:11:00.002+01:00

how do particles adhere. plate 9.

2011-07-01T08:51:00.002+01:00

how do particles adhere. plate 13

2011-06-28T23:26:00.003+01:00

rolling in heavy seas. from a new series of 22 collages. 22 x 26 cm

random thought

2011-06-21T08:23:00.005+01:00

ink. cine film. saliva.

300 and something days

2011-06-07T13:47:00.002+01:00

wreath

2011-06-01T08:10:00.003+01:00

small toned print from 35mm film. barbed wire and flowers.

dedham

2011-05-29T22:37:00.002+01:00

And wander with a wandering star,
The wandering heart of things that are ...

white hotel

2011-05-27T20:16:00.005+01:00

from a set commissioned for paperback of dm thomas' 'white hotel' ages ago ...
this version was my favourite but the version used was slightly 'cleaner'.

ampersand magazine

2011-05-25T08:08:00.003+01:00

nice little australian magazine featuring the show bill henson curated last year and 'memory'.
available at harrods, selfridges, serpentine gallery, etc.

clean version

2011-05-14T13:51:00.002+01:00

better version of something from before. small R-type from cine film.

hazchem

2011-05-13T18:17:00.002+01:00

small detail from a mixed media piece that later became a sort of blueprint for 'custody'.
'hazchem'. 17.75 inches by 22 inches. R-type print, wood, glass, enamel, pencil, tape.

whiteloupe

2011-05-06T08:46:00.003+01:00

a nice little featurette on my work on this excellent photography blog based in texas.
many other photographers there, some great alternative processes and ideas ...

oxidation

2011-03-17T09:42:00.003Z

been working on a new edition of this...
20 x 16 R-type from 35mm cine film. tape. fungus. oxidation. debris.

statuettes

2011-03-12T14:53:00.002Z

joy (notebook)

2011-03-05T17:53:00.005Z

wave theory

2011-03-03T11:36:00.005Z

iraq/detail

2011-03-01T15:02:00.003Z

detail from notebook ...

working notes/art star

2011-02-27T14:44:00.006Z

notes from art star project ...

day 5

2011-02-25T16:43:00.005Z

life began when a star, in its dying stage, exploded ... our bodies are stars.
the final day saw this 'star' become a locked container.... as we all are, just containers of accumulated memories, regrets, yearnings... a loose meditation on childhood, growth, decay, remembering, forgetting, wishing ... all stitched loosely together with images of children in autumn who--like falling stars and windfall apples-- burst with life and light all too briefly...

day 4

2011-02-24T16:22:00.003Z

some small but significant changes today, mostly on the back.
the ten sides are now ten words in brown wax pencil, 'under the night sky, the stars were great and unusual'. the meat of this piece is in the smaller details but, as a whole, it feels the way i originally wanted it to feel; bare, unfinished, unpretentious and honest with a vague narrative. it also looks more like a container today, a packing crate with labels and scribbles which, again, suggests memories or something locked away or put in storage ...

'us'

2011-02-23T19:14:00.004Z

woke at 3:30 this morning so anxious to get into the studio and strip this thing to the bone. no paint. no varnish. no canvas. just my stuff on this glorious wood. the narrative has become real and personal. the title is 'us', a small word that can feel so heavy with melancholy yet stands for such a powerful and optimistic country. tomorrow's work: a ten-word sentence scrawled along the ten sides, more work on the back and a few more minor tweaks on the front.

day two in dalston studio

2011-02-22T18:13:00.005Z

end of day two. canvas stripped to wood. a narrative emerging. the canvas on back has been primed and dragged along the studio floor. needs to be dirtier. much more to do over the next three days.

in progress

2011-02-17T09:00:00.004Z

in progress. just working out the sizes, textures, colours, etc. from existing sample pages. (one accidental storyline which will emerge when i do the new pages: a young girl in pretty white dress becoming a tomboy, a ranchero, (a farmer perhaps?) which gives the piece a subtle feminist slant and a more personal take on the brief which was 'independence')

mood board/sketch

2011-02-15T11:34:00.003Z

rough notes for final version and example of the general layout and feel of the individual pages although the photographs themselves will be more kodachrome-y, depicting scenes from a 1960's family home movie ...

kodachrome and anscochrome

2011-02-14T12:29:00.004Z

to me, these sorts of kodachrome images and colours from the 60's and 70's evoke the sort of 'dreamy memory' i hope to portray in this RL project which will be a notebook/storyboard of a 60's childhood as the movie itself is technically probably not possible.

ralph lauren project

2011-02-12T08:26:00.002Z

from 21 to 25 february, i'll have the privilege of working with jasper joffe at his studio producing a mixed media sort of installation for ralph lauren. from what i know of jasper and his work, i couldn't be happier about having him as my support for this. his site here: jasper joffe

terminally beautiful

2011-02-08T07:35:00.004Z

Young American writer, Christy Leigh Stewart, has produced one of my favourite cover designs in ages for her new book, available now on Amazon.

Fred Free

2011-02-07T08:36:00.002Z

Fred Free is an accomplished artist and illustrator who, amongst many other things, curates a website called 'Variety Showcase'. He kindly featured my work recently. Find out more about him, his collages and the books he has produced here.

video rough

2011-02-03T08:30:00.007Z

rough idea for project below

Ralph Lauren

2011-02-01T08:05:00.002Z

using super 8 projectors, cine film and 35 mm slides in a 'lit' shop may be an ambition too far but i think there's potential and maybe they'll agree ...

joy (version)

2011-01-25T15:44:00.002Z

35mm film. mixed media.

what the bride really said at the altar

2011-01-20T09:15:00.002Z

35mm film.

baby

2011-01-18T10:50:00.004Z

this was a book cover a long time ago (easy peasy by lesley glaister) but i was never that happy about it. i reprinted today and prefer this subdued version to the original)

paris

2011-01-14T07:58:00.004Z

35mm film. no digital tweaks.

defenseless thief shot

2011-01-13T21:34:00.004Z

i love the milky, washed out feeling of this typography....

cine images

2011-01-06T10:29:00.005Z

inspiring cine images i've collected over the years are now at www.robincracknell.wordpress.com

she is the center of my world

2010-12-16T08:45:00.006Z

tethered and tied. 27 cm x 40 cm

Colección Fundació Sorigué

2010-11-28T11:42:00.002Z

honoured to feature briefly in this montage of their collection ...

question time

2010-11-27T20:06:00.004Z

empty room illuminated by television.

x factor

2010-11-20T21:36:00.004Z

empty room illuminated by television.

defaced book

2010-11-14T10:00:00.003Z

great source of random images on defaced book

nihilsentimentalgia

2010-11-07T13:33:00.003Z

a few of my notebooks are on the beautifully entitled photography blog, nihilsentimentalgia
which is curated by sofia silva whose work can be seen here.

artists in their studios

2010-11-03T16:32:00.003Z

portrait photographers often go for the pleasantly derivative or the pointlessly quirky. london photographer, jens marott doesn't flatter or imitate. he goes for truth. i don't like being photographed but i was happy to be part of jens' project which can be seen here, along with his other portfolios and projects: one hour photo project.

Ampersand Magazine Exhibit

2010-10-21T09:22:00.006+01:00

more info here

Capture The Fade

2010-10-17T14:32:00.006+01:00

'Memory' was selected by photographer Bill Henson for the Capture The Fade exhibition at the Paper Mill Gallery in Sydney, Australia opening on the 17th of November for 2 weeks. It will also feature in the next issue of Ampersand Magazine, due out February 2011.

"Culture is never outside nature: the sweetly impenetrable musings of these image-makers gracefully re-kindle and reinforce our respective imaginings and help us, via these gentle reminders to re-enter the dreamscape – those ‘twilit regions’ from whence we came as children and as a civilisation.

The particular quality that attracted me to the work of these people hovers around such notions. Thoughts half realised or rather the sense of something slipping away from thought - and of emotions often powerfully apprehended yet not fully understood.

Like Watteau’s ‘Embarkation for Cythera’, these pictures, albeit in very different ways, hint at this same yearning for an otherness, an elsewhere, a lost domain. They may well indeed turn out to be capturing the fade." .... Bill Henson

the infra ordinary

2010-09-09T09:26:00.007+01:00

Japanese cinema of the 50's, particularly Yasujiro Ozu's work, has made me want to return to a simpler form of photography; namely, pillow shots, the 'infra ordinary', the challenge of expressing meaning through simple objects and banal interiors ... it's a real challenge expressing grief in 'objects' but it attracts me anyway, to find that sense of nothingness (mu) in our usually over-accessorised worlds... maybe it can't be done with static photography. anyway, for the moment, with 120 film, much of it decades out of date and an old mamiya c220, i'm trying to develop this cinematic language and find the extraordinary in the ordinary as Ozu did.

pole star

2010-08-22T10:29:00.003+01:00

random thoughts

Ampersand Magazine

2010-08-17T08:23:00.003+01:00

Thank you Ampersand Magazine

finland

2010-08-16T13:31:00.003+01:00

tetracycline

2010-07-28T20:59:00.002+01:00

R-type print soaked in tetracycline

untitled portrait

2010-07-19T22:03:00.004+01:00

mean distance

2010-07-16T15:30:00.006+01:00

(Astronomy) the average of the greatest and least distances of a celestial body from its primary.

ghana

2010-07-07T17:06:00.002+01:00

cuba

2010-07-06T05:48:00.004+01:00

details (dark)

2010-06-26T12:04:00.004+01:00

35 mm film, tape, ink ...

blood in the water

2010-06-17T13:52:00.009+01:00

35mm film. no photoshop. the 'blood' in the water is a natural result of the chemical process.

roma by night

2010-06-03T15:12:00.008+01:00

work in progress. (35mm film, mixed media)
something about 'remembering' and 'wishing'...
trevi fountain

dans ma jeunesse

2010-05-26T15:25:00.004+01:00

single etching, 17 x 19.5 on 25 x 28 cms

il y a des rues dangereuses
il y a des villes moroses
des fugues au creux
de la nuit silencieuse

the end

2010-03-21T12:45:00.003Z

El Secreto de sus Ojos

2010-03-13T09:56:00.004Z

fourteen (version)

2010-02-16T21:01:00.004Z

slightly reworked version

amo

2009-12-15T14:01:00.005Z

eyemazing magazine issue 04-2009

2009-11-30T00:05:00.003Z

thank you eyemazing magazine

medfield

2009-11-24T08:34:00.007Z

lost my way

2009-11-19T13:28:00.003Z

thanks to the fine japanese blog omatasei for featuring my work this week...along with maurizio anzeri with whom i recently exhibited in london.

big sur

2009-10-27T20:42:00.002Z

The sea seems to yell at me, GO TO YOUR DESIRE AND DON'T HANG AROUND HERE; for after all, the sea must be like God. God isn't asking us to mope and suffer and sit by the sea in the cold of midnight for the sake of writing down useless sounds. He gave us the tools of self-reliance after all to make it straight through bad life mortality to paradise maybe. I hope. .... Kerouac

horizons

2009-10-25T08:22:00.004Z

coincidentally, this recent pair just seem to belong together.

pure

2009-10-19T08:14:00.002+01:00

5 C-type prints from found typography, chemicals ...

whitney

2009-10-13T12:02:00.002+01:00

emulsion, chemicals, found typography

sympathy for the art gallery

2009-10-12T07:39:00.003+01:00

.... one of my favourite art blogs

axis forum

2009-10-06T18:02:00.002+01:00

interesting rant on political correctness -- the richard prince, brooke shields thing-- here.

song of 27 (version)

2009-10-03T13:03:00.002+01:00

The Photographic Object

2009-09-22T11:30:00.004+01:00

play video, click here

Jia Za Zhi

2009-09-21T09:05:00.002+01:00

thanks to Jia Za Zhi for featuring my work yesterday.

London Evening Standard

2009-09-18T00:20:00.001+01:00

wild was the wind

2009-09-17T14:30:00.003+01:00

pebbles in the mouth....shouting at the sea

dismantling

2009-09-15T16:00:00.003+01:00

'the spokings and unzippings of grief' ... martin amis