Life today is being decoded and then recoded. Consequently, much we were previously so certain about seems to be dissolving, is being reconfigured or feels challenged. How are we to cope, now that our material ‘things’ have started talking to us as if they were our friends, doctors and teachers?
I aim to explore how this happenstance has disrupted ingrained notions of authority, identity and our collective perception of what we humans are. I do this by playing through and with an expanded definition of ‘the image’. Philosopher Thomas Nail (2019; 11) describes the image as “not reducible to a strictly visual kind [but rather] optical, sonic, haptic, olfactory, and gustatory”.
I try hard to avoid sanctimony, piousness, misplaced nostalgia or technical fantasy. The existential challenges people face, from every direction, no matter who they are, in the present moment are seismic. It is too easy to pontificate from social media or the reified corridors of academia and the arts. Within that, I enjoy challenging the orthodoxies and dogmas that underpin photography and film practices and philosophies by categorically refusing habitual hierarchies between various media: mixing, mulching, composting original and found matter – glass, textiles, plastic, photo albums, old books, newspapers, magazines, pictures, AI generated material, text, audio, organic and non-organic, self and other. All are media. All are language/material(s). None of these materials and processes come into being outside the real ‘stuff’ that makes our universe. Committed to an immanent, performative-materialism, I investigate the way our media, our images, relate to and constitute our thoughts, views and behaviours. As I reject commonsense ‘values’, I often work with processes that are frowned upon, dismissed and belittled (I’ve sold iPhone prints, made films with Snapchat Filters and embrace generative AI), as well as those which have been romanticised and fetishised.
I am particularly swayed by Nail’s (2019; 361) non-dualistic critique of and response to ‘representationalism’ with its hierarchies, original/copy, master/slave, and winners/losers. He does not posit anti-representationalism. How can we solve the problems associated with binary splitting by offering a reactionary binary solution? Note, such a framework does not negate conflict. Instead, it offers space for more nuanced readings in which multiple and multi-directional, intra-active, opposing tensions exist in constant flux. Out of which, images that remain open to modification and hybridity emerge. Nail writes, “The advent of the digital image, defined by a continuous flow of electricity, forces us to see that the image is not and never has been a representation of a static model. Images have always had a material agency. Movement, and not representation, has always been central to the image, making possible a new materialist aesthetics”.
Reflection, note-taking, asking questions are as important to my work as any traditional output, such as framed pictures, films or installation. You can visit notes here where you will find a more detailed About page.
In 2023, I graduated with an MA in Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies (Distinction). My final project, LAMELLA:// was nominated for the Mullen NOVA CSM award and received one from Hahnemüehle for most creative use of their paper. In 2022, why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers/ was one of seven projects selected for Format/Derby Quad’s Future Focus Exhibition and received a Format Award.
Elsewhere, I work with artists and photographers, developing websites and supporting/mentoring while working on specific projects. I offer structured feedback, as well as practical support and theoretical guidance. I can help with websites, blogging, AI image-generation, ethics around the image, and zine/digital publication . Please inquire about fees or request further information.
News, upcoming and history
2024
LAMELLA:// included in Digital Desires, a UAL Showcase curated by Adam Cole, June 2024.
In Pursuit of an Apparition, Hands Can Miss the Object and other zines, with Maria Ahmed, Inventory Art Book Fair, Cromwell Place, June 2024
After AI Symposium — contributor, Open University, online, May 2024
symbiosis unveiled II: further integration, a short course delivered by Sarah-Jane Field and Chris Le Messurier at Photofusion, May 2024
In Pursuit of an Apparition, Hands Can Miss the Object and other zines, with Maria Ahmed ABBF Peckham24, May 2024
A synthetic collaborator, the end of art, or merely another (very clever) pencil? Workshop with OCA students exploring machine learning and art, the history and contemporary emergence of AI, April 2024
Belongings celebrates the contribution of migrants and refugees to British culture. Co-created by Susan Aldworth, Sara David, Natalia Mesa Echavarria, Sarah-Jane Field, Silvina Maestro, Julia Shutkevych, Michaelle St Vincent and Judy Willcocks with support from CSM’s Creativity in Action Fund. Lethaby Gallery, 14th March – 30th April, 2024
symbiosis unveiled: introduction to integrating ai as a tool in your photographic practice, a short course delivered by Sarah-Jane Field and Chris Le Messurier at Photofusion, April 2024
Format Print market: In Pursuit of an Apparition, Hands Can Miss the Object collaborative zine with Maria Ahmed, in response to Vilem Flusser’s 1985 text, Into the Universe of Technical Images, Publication March, 2024.
The AI Art School: A Speculative Design Workshop – Panelist, organised by Dr Danielle Barrios-O’Neill, Nestor Pestana and Nirit Binyamini Ben-Meir on behalf of glad and The Royal College of Art, March 2024
Community: then, now, and forever, looking at togetherness and kinship across time in Wandsworth, The Grosvenor Arms, Earlsfield, March 1-10th, 2024
2023
Hahnemüehle Award for Most Creative Use of Hahnemüehle Paper 2023 for LAMELLA://print, December 2023
Beyond Romanticism: Relationship Advice for the Now, text and image, Source writing competition runner up, November 2023
Graduated from Central St Martins, Master of Arts in Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies - Distinction, July 2023
What We Thought We Knew, participant in group show at Koppel Project Station, NW3 1PA, 7th July - 28th July
LAMELLA:// included in Central St. Martin’s MA Graduation Show, 28th June – 2nd July 2023
LAMELLA:// Nominated for the MullenLowe NOVA Award, June 2023
Artist’s Talk at Photofusion with Maria Ahmed hosted by Lucy Soutter April 2023
Image in Baby Change-Making curated and produced by Ruby Cydney Gamman and Jasmijn Toffano, Lethaby Gallery, April 2023
2022
SAME/SAME, group workshop and exhibition, City Lit Gallery, November 2022 - January 2023
Participant of Art School, Backwards Kingston School of Art, July 2022
Shutterhub 2022 Yearbook, July 2022
This is Not a Party, CSM Interim Show, Trinity Buoy Wharf, March 2022
why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers/ – one of seven 20/21 graduate projects chosen to exhibit at Quad Gallery, Derby in association with Format - 29th January – 27th February 2022. Recipient of Format Photography Award.
Shutter Hub Postcards From Europe – Image included in exhibition, 12th January - 25th February 2022 at Cambridge University
2021
Guest on Idle Hands Society Podcast. Click here to listen - October 2021
Graduated with First Class Degree in Photography from the Open College of the Arts - August 2021
why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers/ Included in Photograd 2021 Graduate Zine – Pre-order here August 2021
Extract from why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers in MÜ Magazine - Order here July 2021
Association of Photography Accredited Courses Final Year Student Show – Open College of the Arts July 2021
Photograd Online Graduate Exhibition – why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers/ April – June 2021
Source Online Graduate Exhibition – why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers/ May 2021
From lens fungi to astronomical landscapes - organiser and panellist , online talk, 15th April 2021, 7.30pm - Recording here
Redeye Hothouse 2021 – contributing panellist, shared why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers/ Click here for video (at 53.25 secs), January 2021
2019/20
Image in PHMuseum’s Familiar Stranger (2019), a book on mobile photography launched in Bolognia January 2020
Shutterhub’s Everyday Delight Exhibition, Free Space Project, Kentish Town 5 December 2019 – January 2020
A rumour reached the village, group show in conjunction with pic london and London College of Communication, 10 – 19 October, Lewisham Art House
Image accepted for Shutter Hub STREET/FORM exhibition in Rotterdam, 9 – 15 September
Image accepted for Shutter Hub exhibition at Festival Pil'Ours, France, 1 July - 31 August
Image published in Spring edition of fLIP, London Independent Photography’s magazine
Image included in Shutterhub's Everything I Ever Learnt exhibition at the ARB in Cambridge, March 28 - 3 May
2016/18/17
i will have call you exhibited in a group show at Workspace, London
Polar Inertia and Let it Stand - included in the Open College of the Arts (OCA) Showcase exhibition, celebrating 30 years of open access art education, OXO Tower Wharf Gallery
Image accepted for LIP30 exhibition at Espacio Gallery
Nexus at Oxford House with Keith Greenough and John Umney
Portrait of a Pub
Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie chosen as part of a member's exhibition at Bank Street Arts in Sheffield