New Exhibition... Chemistry of Chance
I’m currently working on preparing an exhibition with Greg Neville to open in mid-February at the Edmund Pearce Gallery.
The exhibition is called Chemistry of Chance and is based on a collection of darkroom 'discards' that Greg and I happened to have collected independently over a period of thirty years or more, working in various college darkroom environments...
The detritus of unwanted, discarded prints and test strips, left in the darkroom bins after class sessions, living in a chemical 'soup' of developer, stop bath, fixer, air, water and the action of light (during cleanup), makes for an environment leading to complex alchemical reactions, resulting in fascinating forms and colours on the discarded prints.
With careful selection and editing, abstract 'compositions' can be discovered. These selections were scanned and digitally edited to bring out what was perceived in the original print and to intensify the compositional elements. As in other aspects of my work, there are abstract but identifiable figures and landscape elements.
In some way, this exhibition is both a celebration of the darkroom and a marker for it's demise. For many photographers in the digital age, the darkroom is a fading memory and best forgotten, but for others (admittedly, now a small but dedicated group), it is still a magical place that can be a site for precision, but also one that can allow for chance events worth celebrating ...
The exhibition is called Chemistry of Chance and is based on a collection of darkroom 'discards' that Greg and I happened to have collected independently over a period of thirty years or more, working in various college darkroom environments...
The detritus of unwanted, discarded prints and test strips, left in the darkroom bins after class sessions, living in a chemical 'soup' of developer, stop bath, fixer, air, water and the action of light (during cleanup), makes for an environment leading to complex alchemical reactions, resulting in fascinating forms and colours on the discarded prints.
With careful selection and editing, abstract 'compositions' can be discovered. These selections were scanned and digitally edited to bring out what was perceived in the original print and to intensify the compositional elements. As in other aspects of my work, there are abstract but identifiable figures and landscape elements.
In some way, this exhibition is both a celebration of the darkroom and a marker for it's demise. For many photographers in the digital age, the darkroom is a fading memory and best forgotten, but for others (admittedly, now a small but dedicated group), it is still a magical place that can be a site for precision, but also one that can allow for chance events worth celebrating ...
More information and images to follow...
Here are some of the images NOT included in the exhibition...I'm just teasing, but you will have to wait to see the finals...
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