Thursday 31 May 2012

why i love film






































this print of jake, lost for a while and now found, is why i love film. the gashes in the surface, years of neglect and abuse etched into the emulsion. damp, heat, cold, debris, mould, chemical burn, sunlight, the scraping through hundreds of projectors, layers of grimy fingerprints, smeared clean and then soiled again. colours slowly deteriorating, corrupting over time.... it's all there.
digital technology can approximate all sorts of lovely things but it can't age organically or fade or decay as film does. it has no surface to punish. film is a filter for light and the surface of film is an ever-changing collection of dust and debris. i don't care that it fades and scratches. these things are signs of life.

Wednesday 30 May 2012

wing damage























originally shot around 2001. first exhibited as a hazy, blue cropped version in 2007 in the 'camera suture' show at the whitecross gallery in london. now produced in full frame, complete with 10 years' more of deterioration, new marks and colours. one of my favourite images.

Monday 28 May 2012

Saturday 26 May 2012

boy x (new print)






































new version. small print from 35mm cine film.

fourteen. the last portrait.






































new archival version of earlier (lost hastily scanned) experiment.
C-type print produced from 35mm film, rust, dirt, debris ...

Thursday 17 May 2012

leaf, her hair



























small photogram-type print from leaf and hair.
"... their wings will be soft and they must climb somewhere safe to wait for their wings to harden before they can fly away..." from wiki article about the fleeting -- but intense -- life-cycle of the luna moth.

Monday 14 May 2012

Sunday 6 May 2012