Publicity shots for school production - July 2012

Some of the photographs I took for Key Meadows primary school's drama production - "Olivia"....

Latest Work

      My photography quietly subverts the everyday and ordinary.

The camera can lie. It can make the mundane appear unsettling and surreal. In a sense I'm setting out to create a disturbing vision of suburbia.

        The work has evolved out of an enquiry into my altered relationship to time, and loss of self-identity, through the experience of motherhood...

In a comment on the place of women in the home, the domestic space is experienced as a labyrinthine environment. Although it is a safe and secure place, it also imprisons and constrains.

   

Sometimes we see a ghostly figure in the image. I have chosen to photograph myself and my young daughter, in a comment on my current domestic situation in contrast to my own childhood.

The adult, mother figure is seen trapped within the domestic interior – the kitchen or the narrow corridors of the flat. The child is more often seen outside – in the park, the forest or at the seaside.

These images are allusions to a distant, rose-tinted memory of a time when I had no responsibilities and was not chained to the kitchen sink.

 In the ‘Endless Corridor’ series I have photographed myself and my daughter surrounded by balloons. There is an element of pathos amidst the detritus of a birthday party in a comment on the inevitability of the endless cycle of life, death and domesticity.

Referencing cinema and temporality in the visual image, the work alludes to an unidentified narrative. The sequence evokes flashback moments or fragmented memories within a disorientating journey through the present.

   

   

Day Trip to Margate - February 2012

A selection of photos from a recent day trip to 'sunny' Margate....

Cass Fine Art Degree Show

"Untitled 1" (2012) from "The Endless Corridor" series
C-Type Print, 40x40cm

One of my images which will be on show at this year's Cass degree show.

Opening night Tue 12th June, 2012, 6-10pm

Show runs til Sun 17th June.

Info: www.facebook.com/cass2012degreeshow
         www.cass2012catalogue.tumblr.com

More pics to follow!

Current work

This series investigates the interrelationship and tension between photography and cinema in conveying a sense of time, space and story-telling. The narrative is invented, though inspired by autobiographical events. The viewer is encouraged to feel they are part of this sequence of events; a character in the unfolding story. It is more a collection of flashback moments or fragmented memories than an explicit plot. As one memory is recalled, so a completely unrelated image may come to mind.

      The formal considerations of the image: its colour, tone, abstraction evoke a mood or emotion rather than a documented fact. The grain of the film, the accidental light leaks, long exposures and multiple exposures – all give a certain depth and quality to the still image. The intention is that the photographs demand something of the viewer, and are quiet and understated but sensorial and evocative. Playing with notions of escape and confinement; ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, the viewer is taken on a journey in space and time. The images are filmic but have the advantage over cinema, that they can show the past, present and future simultaneously.

       I have been photographing spaces – the confines of the domestic space compared to the vast, yet ensnaring realms of the forest. I am concerned with the painterly qualities of the photograph – the subtle plays of light and colour. I am interested in exploring the emptiness of the frame, the tonal qualities of the photograph as an encounter with space. The images function as complete in themselves, but of vital importance is their juxtaposition and how they affect the images around them.

Walthamstow Art Trail

from the series "Traces of Alice, 2010"

I'll be showing work from the Domestic Goddess series, The Long Walk Home and Traces of Alice at this year's Walthamstow Art Trail. It runs from Friday 2nd Sept to Sunday 11th Sept 2011. The private view is on Thursday 1st Sept from 6-8pm (followed by a Blues band) at Currans, 166 Hoe Street, London, E17 4QH. I will be showing a small selection of photographs and screenprints at Ye Olde Rose & Crown, 53 Hoe Street alongside several other artists. I will also be showing a larger selection of work at Currans (address above) as part of another Nomad show.... Join Nomad Gallery on Facebook. Check out details of the art trail at www.e17arttrail.co.uk  My listings are no. 47 and 49, click on the title of exhibition to get more info. Nomad is a wandering art venue whose founding members - Geoff Gunby, Judy Clarkson, Penny Dampier and Andrew Pegram work in a variety of media. Painting, drawing, photography and screenprinting mainly.... We also often invite guest artists to show alongside us.

Islington Arts Factory Summer Salon

I've been selected to show some photographs at this year's Islington Arts Factory Summer Salon. It's like a smaller version of the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. More details available at: www.islingtonartsfactory.org/exhibitions/summer-salon
Private view is Fri 8th July 2011, show runs until 29th July 2011.

Quoting the Islington Arts Factory's website: "In keeping with IAF's founding principles the Summer Salon welcomes a diverse range of contributions and will create a launch pad for up and coming artists from a variety of backgrounds. Islington Arts Factory's Summer Salon 2011 will feature over 140 pieces of new work by local, emerging and established artists. Curation is inspired by the 17th Century French Salons, creating a busy atmosphere to inspire and promote formal and informal discussion around contemporary art themes. This year Summer Salon is part of Islington Exhibits, which throws open the doors of artist's studios and galleries all over Islington."