Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your practice?
video2015 - ‘Grounds for the Sublime’ - Cadair Idris
I am an artist photographer, meaning that my work is predominantly lens based, conceptual in its approach, and with an emphasis on experimental process. It is also mostly outdoor location-based.
A recent example of my work is ‘Grounds for the Sublime - Cadair Idris’. My approach to this infamous Welsh mountain was an attempt to fall in with the sublime approach of visiting 19th Century Romanticists: a submission to the elements, a traversing of difficult terrain; a desire to experience the un-measurable. For this, I decided to try recording my experience using a micro-SD movie camera attached to a kite. The result was a short lo-tech film, in opposition to anything grand scale and a more personal and humorous approach.
What are you currently working on?
At the moment I am exploring some new processes, gum bichromate as an old photographic / printmaking ‘cross-process’. I am also researching a process of encaustic - using wax to seal and add texture to photographs.
photogram 2014 ‘Breathe’ shown at the Pitt Rivers Museum
I am also preparing for a small show of new images at the Old Fire Station in July 2016. These are all pinhole landscape images mostly from tourist sites in Wales and Cornwall that have been double exposed, or deliberately fogged to produce quite unpredictable results. Such tensions can be read in my use of pin-hole photography. The set up and exposure times it takes to use this technology means that, like original picturesque artists, I take a decidedly ‘plein air’ approach, yet there are uncontrollable elements within the process, and so the results are not necessarily pretty or tame.
Do you have studio space elsewhere?
pinhole photograph 2015 'Merry Maidens, Cornwall’
Being outdoors is my main studio space. But I spend a considerable amount of time at home researching picturesque, historical or contested sites for photographing through reading maps, current news articles and old guide books. I also have the opportunity to use the darkroom at Banbury and Bicester College where I work.
What are your other (work) commitments if any?
I have a family, and I work part time as a Creative Arts Tutor at Banbury and Bicester College.
How does being an associate at Magdalen road support your work?
I do not live in Oxford, so it is great to be associated with an artistic community, if only mostly through email and on the website. I have really enjoyed visiting on Open Studio Days and been inspired by the resident artists to continue my own practice.
What are you hoping to achieve over the next year?
To continue photographing locally, finding ways to link new processes with specific locations.
To produce new photographic work in Wales that engages with the local community during my Stiwidio Maelor residency in July 2016 - last year’s residency was more exploratory.
To keep in touch with the Studios, and focus on more exhibitions.