Primary practice is analog / film based photography with two different approaches, presented under the collective title of ‘Citizen Reality’.
These approaches are:
- Taking photographs in real life (IRL), by ‘being there’
- Appropriating and ‘Re-photographing’ third-party images with a large format camera. Images are sourced and selected from moving imagery on television or computer screens. These pictures are called ‘Telescreens’.
Regardless of the contrasting visual syntaxes, there’s no hierarchy or boundary of subject matter. The picture outputs reflect a compulsive and intuitive response to a photographic addiction, confronted with an exponentially evolving and overwhelming quantity of material to sample.
Citizen Reality aims to aesthetically seduce and sometimes subvert the viewer’s perception. The artistic objective is to explore and provoke reflection upon how imagery, art itself, the media, press etc, tech and Ai combine to shape our perception and understanding of reality, and [to] question the idea of there being an objective photographic authenticity.
The work experiments with motive, evolving technology, provenance, title, and editing (at selection, in the viewfinder and post-production stages) to offer critique via narratives with varying degrees of truth. The outputs result from a mix of aimless serendipity and a calculated desire for memorability.
Influences include Avedon, Eggleston, Frank, Gruyaert, Friedlander, Prince, Hamilton, Bechtel, Sontag, Clay Shirky, Adam Curtis, Kissinger’s ‘constructive ambiguity,’ Vladislav Surkov, Lee Atwater (“perception is reality”), Thucydides (“Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them.”), McLuhan, Boorstin, Debord, Baudrillard, Neal Gabler, and of course, Trump.
Note: The data compression processes involved in presenting the ‘Telescreen’ pictures online / viewed through a screen can create stroboscopic anomalies that do not appear in the paper prints of the same photographs.
Education
Master’s Degree Fine Art 2013, Chelsea College of Art & Camberwell College of Art, London
Shows:
‘Daily, Weekly’, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Australia, February 2012
‘A Machine for Living in’, Hannah Barry Gallery, London, May 2012
‘New Community Design’, Tokyo‘Wondersite’, Tokyo, Japan,April 2012
‘Wondersite’, Japanese Embassy, London, May / June 2012
‘Bend Over Shirley’, Beaconsfield Contemporary Art, London, July 2012
Chelsea Salon, South London Gallery, London, October 2012
Chelsea Salon, Chelsea College of Art & Design – The Bakehouse, November 2012
‘Perfect Patio’, Space Station 65 – London, May 2013
MA Degree Show, Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, September 2013
‘Morphol Scream’, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, March 2014
‘Fake Phoney Reality’ – (solo show) in the ‘Balfron Season’ @ 67 Balfron Tower,London, September 2014
Summer Arts Prize shortlist 2015, Lacey Contemporary Gallery – Holland Park London
‘ENDS’, Group show, Hundred Years Gallery, London, July 2016
Summer Arts Prize shortlist 2016, Lacey Contemporary Gallery – Holland Park London
«2016 days of awesome photo books», LhGWR gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands
It’s all about the image; What you see is what you see – 2021, solo show, Blackshed Gallery, Robertsbridge, East Sussex
Nobody can hide, but everything is under control – 2021, solo show – Trinity 7, Hastings, East Sussex
Athens Photo Festival – 2022, shortlisted
Group show / IMPACT 12 Printmaking Conference at The Centre for Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol in September ’22
‘Weather fair, visibility good’. Solo Show – Coastal Currents Arts Festival, Hastings, September ’23
Shutterhub – Yearbook Exhibition 2024
Art Book Fairs & photo’zine collections
Encontros da Imagem – International Photography Festival – Soap and Rocket photo’books shortlisted, Sep / Nov 16
Tijuana Porto 12ª Feira de Arte Impressa – Soap and Rocket photo’books selected, Oct ’16
Tijuana collection, São Paulo – selected September 2016
Self Publish – Be Happy, collection, selected September 2016
Publications:
Soap and Rocket episodes 01 to 05 / ISSN 2399 3065
Links:
Authenticity & The Land (scroll down)
Curating the Contemporary: The Digital Obsession – The Emperor’s New Clothes revisited
Residencies:
Queensland College of Art, Griffin University, Queensland, Australia February 2102
Tokyo ‘Wondersite’, Japan, March 2012
Flat Time House, Camberwell, London, June 2012
‘Cellusys’, Africa, 2023 – 24