summer eleven / ju dou

Again, thank you to Roger Ballen for selecting some of my work. Interview here
And thank you again to my friend, Martin Paetsch, for his help in translating Chinese characters
which, above, reference some personal metaphors from this powerful film.

ten

seven

part of new series. still working on it ...

slow art day

thank you Slow Art Day

honeymoon

Honeymoon 25 x 28 cms.
Yasujiro Ozu also repeated himself, revisited the same theme again and again.
I've worked with this single image of the sea for 20 years now.

reef knot

Reef Knot  C-type print, mixed media. 25 x 28 cms.

van morrison etc

listening to van morrison all day yesterday ... he repeats himself unashamedly. not just individual words and phrases within songs but the same motifs across decades of albums. i respect him for that, for being so committed to this 'thing' he's going after. there is a confidence in repeating yourself. a determination to dig deeper seems as important as the determination to move further.

these two images have obsessed me for a long time. they began in about 2006 and i am still working on them today. these two versions are completely new. they look almost identical to previous versions but they are completely different negatives, shot at the same time but never printed. i just can't finish with them.

the end / af

this image came about largely by accident but, of everything these
last few months, it is my favourite. 35mm slide scanned as found.
no photoshop except to correct contrast to match original.

to hell with the boys

traditional colour C-type from 35mm b/w film.

Roger Ballen 'World Wide Wall'

I've admired Roger Ballen's work for quite a while (above: Bite 2007) so it was an honour to have him select a few of my photographs for this 'World Wide Wall' collection for Saatchi Online. More of Roger's work can be seen here

cine stills

some (soon to be all) of the 'found' cine images i've been collecting for so long are now here

memories

monochrome print from colour transparency.
(35mm film, dirt, oil, mixed media)

tricycle

Unique print from 35mm film / cine film / mixed media.

mutant space

Sincere thanks to mutant space for their lovely little feature on my work.

lost

every portrait is a self-portrait.

acton

traditional print from 35mm chemically treated cine film. approx 40 x 50cms

cast / mummy

from a shoot approx 12 years ago. 35mm negative deteriorating
from years of different chemical processes.

cast / fingers

Working on this again today. It took me back, some vivid memories...

start/torso

Something from approx 5 years ago, finally printed as I'd originally imagined it.

poppies

Poppies, Scotland (2013)
35mm film. Tape. Glue. Shot with damaged Zenit camera. Single negative scanned/printed as is.

strong light made me cry

Many years ago, I saw this 'headline' in a medical advice column and the ambiguity of it has always
stayed with me. Traditional C-type from 35mm film.

objection 2

again. black and white. there is so much happening in the surface of this print which, sadly, my ancient scanner barely approximates.

lily

I don't often work in black and white but, recently, I'm feeling influenced
by so many photographers who do. Photographers from history but, also,
my contemporaries like Deborah Parkin, particularly, whose work reminds
me how powerful and pure this medium can be.

The Strand Gallery

Many thanks to The Strand Gallery for this 'spotlight' feature.

tape

this random bit of 35mm cine film was under layers of yellow splicing tape when i first discovered it about 25 years ago. i know nothing about it except that i've always been drawn to it and am finally getting around to printing it. look at the delicate, almost feminine hands of 'the taper'. the menacing stare of the henchman assisting in the (presumed) abduction. the sparkly 50's-era glasses. the deteriorating surface of grime, glue and debris. i like everything about this picture. i would love to know the name of the movie and the context of this scene.

Darwin Magazine

Thank you so much to Darwin Magazine for featuring some of my work.

1969 project

something found, cropped and re-photographed with 35mm cine film.
part of an ongoing project.

photophores

A generous and intelligent review in Photophores featuring two photographers whose work I genuinely admire : Angeline Leroux and Gaelle Cercle Abravanel.

childhood photograph

An inspired twist in the ENFANCE(S) show was to use pictures of the artists as we were rather than as we are ....

art and science

I received a lovely email recently from Utrecht requesting permission to use 'Womb'
as a cover image for a PhD thesis in gynaecology. I've done many bookcovers and
my first print of 'Womb' hangs in a respected museum but this felt like an even higher
honour. I so admire and respect the dedication and toil of important medical research
and am humbled to have my work connected to it in this small way.

La(b) Galerie Artyfact

ENFANCE(S) réactive notre rapport existentiel et mémorial de cette période de nos vies.

Comme la madeleine de Proust, cette exposition se veut un écho lointain d'un passé idyllique et à la fois obscur fait de fragments éparses d'une mémoire collective.

Les installations de 15 artistes dessinent les contours d'ENFANCE(S) comme une longue réminiscence de sensations oubliées : conte onirique, parcours initiatique, osmose aux forces de la nature, petit monde mystérieux, mythologie de l'innocence, essence de la famille, origine du monde... C'est le chuchotement en creux des voix d'enfants des artistes que l'on pourra percevoir.

virgin islands

Off to Paris this afternoon until Friday. If you're around, please come and say hello.
I will be at the gallery tomorrow. LAB GALERIE ARTYFACT

denmark

late addition for ENFANCE(S). 5 Sept to 19 October. Paris.
I will be at the gallery on the 5th. Please come and say hello.

girl. found.

My feelings about photography are changing so much. Images that I dismissed months ago now feel worthwhile and projects I really believed in last week seem trivial this morning. Instead of just working instinctively and intuitively, I find myself worrying about what my production costs will be or what the 'gallery appeal' would be. Worse still, I find myself comparing my work to others. I also worry about repeating myself.
'girl. found.' is from a distinctly uncommercial project I started earlier this summer and later abandoned. Small images in glass mounts. Just as I was getting away from 'mediated' work, I found a collection of slides and worked them into a sort of abstract narrative. Despite the lack of commercial appeal -- or perhaps, because of it -- I am very drawn to this series, particularly this picture. I feel I understand the anonymous girl, the photographer, even the scent of that house, that year, that summer. The tangle of stories connecting them all feels so vivid, so familiar. It is a 'bad' photograph in many ways but, to me, it has a vague and faded beauty, a poignancy and even a physical 'surface' of deterioration that I find very powerful.

twigs

twigs (2013)  35mm cine film.  approx 27cm x 45cm.
no digital processes. film strip simply scanned as found.

whirlpool

whirlpool (2013).  25 x 28 cm.

francis goodman

Constantia Nicolaides' excellent little feature on the life and work of Francis Goodman. His work
is still on display at The National Portrait Gallery. Until 3 November.

doldrums

doldrums  (2012)  25 x 28 cm.

three (wasps)

three (wasps) 2013. 'old school' composite print. approx 10 cm x 11 cm.

anchor tongue

anchor tongue  (2013) 25 x 28 cm. The end of this series.

my father's roses

some of the first pictures i ever took as a boy were of my father's roses. the first super 8 movie i made was all about those same roses -- complete with hand-written subtitles. maybe i was looking for approval, i'm not sure. anyway, the last time i was at my father's house in wisconsin was shortly after he'd died. i took this photograph of the roses that remained in bloom.  (traditional print from 35mm)

Cor Caroli

Cor Caroli (2013). Sent this to Los Angeles this morning. I wish I was going, too ...

ENFANCE(S)

If you are in Paris in September,  I think you'll enjoy this show. The theme
is 'childhood' and I am fortunate to be showing a series of notebooks in the
company of some fine photographers.

confessions of a michael stipe

I was pleased to see Michael Stipe put 'Memory' on his tumblr a few days ago.
The internet being the stupid thing that it is, I assumed it was a wind-up but it's not.
Across the Tumblrverse: The Sort of Confessions of Michael Stipe
Spin Magazine

lieux de memoire

Where memory crystallizes and secretes itself. 

C-type printed from deteriorating 35mm cine film. 

belong

sketchy ideas and musings (from long ago) which eventually became this

french guinea

french guinea 2007  (mixed media 22 x 27cm)
(one of seven notebooks off to paris for an installation in early september)

diminished

diminished  (film, paper, glass, metal. 50mm x 150mm)