A podcast and a group show

in ,

I was really chuffed to be asked by Nat Lyon recently to speak about my pinhole photographs for Experimental Trash. I have been a big fan of his show and his music for a few years now.. Experimental Trash is a radio program produced for CAMP (an artist residency in the French Pyrenees), podcast and blog, that focuses on the creative processes of artists, writers, and musicians. It always has a beautiful lo-fi vibe, and I really love the way he presents his interviews, removing his own voice and letting the answers just hang there, disjointed. We talked about photography, time, sounds in the woods, sense of place, cameras, my ill-thought out purchase of a theremin.. and all the sounds throughout this episode are derived from fragments of the conversation and field recordings I sent that Nat has looped and modified and embellished, including my ums and maybes and two notes I played on the concertina that he has added bass and piano to in a kind of duet.

The show went out on CAMP Radio last Wednesday (27.11.24) and the field notes and replay for the show are now up on the Experimental Trash blog (Episode 55)

https://natlyon.bandcamp.com
https://listen.camp
http://experimentaltrash.com

In other news, I’m really pleased to have this piece in the Winter Show at Orleans House Gallery alongside 48 other local artists. This was one of the first pinhole photographs I took earlier this year, and the one that sparked the idea for the residency project.

“Motion Picture” - pinhole photograph silver print, unique 1 of 1 on fibre-based paper with caption that reads “Listening to ‘No Motion Picture’ for 15 minutes, 11.04.24”

The show runs 30 November 2024 – 2 February 2025, 10am-5pm, Free - Orleans House Gallery, Orleans Road, Twickenham, TW1 3BL

Artists Make Space residency

in ,

I’m really happy to be one of the selected artists for the Artists Make Space residency at Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham. I will be working out in the woods in the gallery grounds over the summer using my pinhole camera to record my experience of time spent alone in nature. I may or may not be posting updates over on my instagram, and I will write about the project once it is done and I know more about it.

How I spent my time alone in the woods

in ,

A few weeks ago I went alone to a cabin in the woods. Two evenings spent tending the fire, looking out the windows, listening to CDs, listening to the birds, reading, watching the light fade behind the trees, waking with the light, and one long long day to be outside on my own, to walk, to split wood, and to try out my new pinhole camera.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, from being alone out there. But it was strange, how very unstrange it felt. How it just felt perfectly normal at the same time as still feeling quite special. No epiphanies, just a nice quiet time amongst the trees that I absolutely needed.

I lost track of time, but I also recorded time. Kept a diary. Here you go.

Wednesday 10th April

18:55 - I arrived here at 4pm. I have already cooked and eaten my dinner. (pasta, mushrooms, chilli pesto, plenty of cheese) I had a sturdy fire going but I’m letting it go down a bit as it’s got very warm in here. Drinking margaritas from a tin cup. I can hear the woods. Birds. A woodpecker. Gentle spatter of rain. The light is starting to fade.
From my two corner windows, from the bed, I can see trees. Five silver birches. And plenty of others I can’t name. In front of the cabin the ground drops away, and beyond the treeline is a field, bright in the last of the light. Inside the cabin, the bed takes up the whole of one end. The wood stove next to it, a table to my right, a small kitchen counter. The bathroom takes up the other end. There is a CD player, a selection of 5 CDs, a lantern, a bag of firewood. It’s nice not having a lot of things around me. I’ve hidden my own things under the table. I have already washed up and tidied the kitchen. I have finished my margarita and am wondering if I will have another. If I should listen to a CD, or read a book, or just sit and look out the window.

19:16 - Decided to put on a CD. Decided to listen to what was already in the machine - The Beatles “Let It Be, Outtake Highlights”. I think maybe now might be the time to get into the Beatles.

19:51 - I am now listening to the birds: blackbird, wren, robin.

19:57 - Now listening to the best of REM and watching the light fade.

20:16 - It is nearly dark. It is basically, dark.

21:20 - Ready for bed. I have double-checked the fire is properly out. It is. I have a cup of tea and am about to read. “Checkout 19” by Claire-Louise Bennett. And then I will sleep.

Thursday

07:30 - Awake and up trying to get a fire going. The kindling is still damp. I’ve got a cup of tea and a pack of chocolate digestives.

09:30 - I’ve been drinking tea outside on the porch, thinking about how nice it is to be able to walk straight out of a front door into the woods first thing in the morning. I spoke to R on the phone for a bit, and now I am dressed and ready and going for a walk.

09:35 - My phone needs charging, and I need my phone for the map so I don’t get lost, so I’m not going yet. Splitting wood for tonight’s kindling instead.

10:30 - Went for a walk. I walked to Hammer Pond, and around to the other side. I saw the monastery, saw the weir, overhead power lines glitching in the water, buddhas in the trees, a wood anemone. Took some photos of myself responding to the shapes of trees and ferns. I also photographed every fork in the path and every gate, and distinctive tree to record the way back because I didn’t quite trust in the map and the phone signal, so now my photo stream is full of photos like this

and this

and this

and I did not get lost.

12:00 - Back at the cabin now, sitting outside, and just had something to eat. Slice of bread, avocado, Double Decker. Getting a bit cold. Going to put my boots back on and set up the pinhole camera.

17:48 - Back indoors now. Got a cup of tea and the fire going. I’ll make dinner in a bit. I’ve spent the last five hours with the Pinsta. I took four photos. The first came out very over-exposed. 35 minutes was too long. It came out far too bright but it really did not matter because opening up the camera that first time to reveal a photograph that had been developed right there in the woods, standing in the place where it had been taken, was exciting enough. I went with my gut and chose 15 minutes for the next attempt and it came out like this..

black and white pinhole photograph of a path winding through the trees. a clump of silver birch glow brightly at the right side of the frame.

That’s the path leading to the cabin. I like how the birch trees are glowing. I love how the edges of the frame are spilling into the branches. I love this camera. It’s immediately my new favourite.

Black and white pinhole photograph. Self portrait, a blurred figure sat at the base of a tree by Donna Enticknap

Here’s another 15 minute exposure. It’s a double self-portrait, if you can make it out, I’m there, leaning forward reading (“In Watermelon Sugar”) and then also leaning back against the tree not reading, and listening to the birds.

And a 15 minute self-portrait listening to “No Motion Picture” by Eberhard Weber. The exposure was 15 minutes, but the song is 19:38 long. My face is blurred because I couldn’t get my head comfortable resting against the tree trunk. Motion picture.

I have had a beautiful day.

My fire is going nicely. I will drink my tea and write some notes and then cook dinner. Same as last night. Might not bother with the mushrooms. Might bother.

I pratted about to Belle and Sebastian while the pasta cooked. I ate my dinner. I heard a sound outside and for a while thought maybe someone was out there in the woods looking in. I closed the blinds and decided that wasn’t true. I drank tea and read more of Checkout 19 which is an excellent book. I wrote my diary. At some point I went to bed and slept soundly.

Friday

I woke at 6 and opened up the blinds and watched the trees for a while. Got the fire going and the kettle on, and started to pack. Got the place in order and went for a short walk, and spent the last of my time with the pinhole again. It was sunnier today, I had to guess at new exposure times. I got one nicely exposed shot, then there was just enough time to get the last bits packed away and back in their places and then at 11, R came to collect me.

Black and white pinhole photograph. A figure lying at the base of a large multi-trunked tree by Donna Enticknap

The doing of things for their own sake

in , ,

When I stayed in the woods (which I WILL write about soon) I worked on a little personal photo project.. something I’ll likely never show anyone, just for me.. a little bit of performative dance responding to the shapes of the trees. I’ve just seen these exquisite photos by Louis Fleckenstein (thanks to @sardonicus.eu who posts wonderful stuff over on Bluesky) I’m never as original as I think I am.

Behold this joyousness..

(I’ll share these in lieu of my own photos, because like I say, they are just for me.)

Not that I was especially striving for originality. I will continue with my project. It was more about the doing of it than the results anyway. I’m not a very performative person day to day, but when I’m on my own, or hyper-focused on what i’m doing, yes. And sometimes often I have no shame, quite happy to seemingly make a fool of myself in order to do what I want to do. The woods were pretty quiet at that time in the morning, but there was this same old guy who seemed to be always coming up the path just as I was climbing out of the underbrush. So, probably the only person who will ever see what I did that day.

But the point is, this is the sort of thing I have been revelling in lately, this idea of doing things for their own sake. Since I’ve been spending less and less time online and on social media, I’m no longer feeling that same intense pressure to share everything I do. I’ve been able to work and explore new ideas and experiment and do stupid things for no reason knowing that I do not have to show anyone any of this stuff. It’s mine. It doesn’t matter. It totally matters. It exists without needing to be seen or commented on. It gives me time to look at it properly and not have to decide yet whether or not I like it.

It’s pretty nice. I recommend it.

More Louis Fleckenstein over here.. https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103KCX by the way

Two group shows for winter

in ,

I will have work in two group shows in December…

Portal I is showing at Orleans House Gallery winter show running from 2 December 2023 until the 28 January 2024

And we are having an open studio christmas exhibition at Kew Art Studio, where I will be showing one of the stone prints from Exiled Souls, along with a new cyanotype piece and one of my polaroid emulsion lifts, 1st – 3rd December

Opening night for both is on Friday 1st December.

Dreams of Exiled Souls

in ,

Our group exhibition The Dreams of Exiled Souls opened this weekend. I was busy having too good a time and took disappointingly few photos.. so I also forgot to get any of me with my work but there is this one that Clare Archibald took where I’m considering the correct arrangement of things during the installation.

The private view on Friday went very nicely despite the incessant rain and it was so good to meet everyone. Many thanks to David at Chroma Editions for bringing together such a beautiful show and for inviting me to be part of it along with some really excellent people.

Links to the online places of the other artists..

Clare Archibald
Richard Baker
David Banning
Julian Hyde
Neil Jackson
Joanna Pocock
Iain Sharpe
Louise Smith
Isabella Streffen

The show runs until 4th November. If you’re in Kendal please go along and see it at Cross Lane Projects, Cross Lane, Kendal, LA9 5LB

Poster artwork and design by David Banning of Chroma Editions

Experiments in cyanotype

in ,

My phone gave up the ghost last week. I cannot describe the overwhelming feeling of joy and relief when I saw that flashing glitching apple logo. I've had seven glorious days of freedom. No email, no text messages, no to do list reminders, no alarms, and no surprises. I've read so much. I've done my work. I've got so much work done.

Here's a quick and scrappy cyanotype from the end of a long day of experimenting. I've been working on another image for the last few weeks but it's taking longer than expected to get right and I was starting to get impatient so I did a quick test print of this negative instead just to see how it might come out. Took a guess at a 14 minute exposure. The highlights are a bit blown out, so I decided to stick it in a bath of tea.. All a bit slapdash, I think the tray might probably have had some soap in it which might explain these errant blue blotches. Which I kind of like. And the vertical stripes are from the print lying facedown on the bottom of the tray and not enough agitation. I guess they shouldn't be there either. But I like the glitches. And I really like the colour of the toning. Iron gall. I shall write a bit about the science and history behind that at some point.

Anyway. This is a rock from Rannoch Moor in Scotland floating above Lindisfarne, Holy Island in Northumberland.