British photographer inspired by artistic movements but particularly Dadaism and Surrealism.
Artist statement:
My inspiration and influences range from Renaissance art to Dadaism and Surrealism,
from Picasso to the flotsam and jetsam that I pick up on my walks by the sea near my home.
Having experimented with a wide variety of media during my time at art school, I found that
photography was the thing that most excited me. The immediacy and the rather hazy line that
can be created between reality and the feeling of not being quite sure what is happening is what
I find appealing. I really believe in understanding the technique so that it becomes transparent
and the image shines through.
Some pictures are simple and complete inside my head from the beginning, but most of my
images start with the inspiration of the objects themselves. It may be something found in a junk
shop, washed up on the beach near my home or something from my past, such as wooden
letters from a childhood game or my palette from art school days. I am mostly drawn towards
old stuff with a bit of patina and an air of decay - I love the textures and variations in the
colours. Also, objects from the natural world are a great inspiration.
I often assemble a collection of such items and then experiment to find the perfect
juxtaposition of composition, form and colours - what I think of as playtime. This “Playtime” is
possibly the most important and creative part of my image making process. I deliberately try
not to be specific or to choose meanings to portray at this stage - it’s a time I need to be alone
with the image, and it’s the time when things begin to happen quite unconsciously. At this stage
I like to work quietly with no interruptions, I make the composition, then use a spot of light to
shape the forms into an image.Then follows endless deliberation and honing of the picture; I
like to pare it down to it’s essentials and suddenly the dynamic is there and the image sits well,
as if it has always existed. Of course, lighting also plays an extremely important rôle as this is
what creates the all-important atmosphere. I like my pictures to have a narrative quality but I
mostly prefer people to read what they like into them and hopefully enjoy them for their
visual stimulation. I love super saturated colour. I often use pure artists’ pigments to create the
effects, but also am very fond of faded, degraded colour and monochrome - it really depends on
what image I am making. At the moment I am working on a monochrome series as I feel that it
is sometimes essential to get back to basics.
Many of the images are entirely shot 'in camera’ but I also enjoy using Photoshop ( I have
been learning it for 18 years). It is a wonderful tool that has opened up whole new worlds
(fantasy islands?) to me. I use it to print every image I make whether they be composites or
entirely shot in camera - it has replaced my darkroom completely and now I dodge and burn
and tweak my images with many layered files and produce better prints than I ever did in the
dark.
I work with Pam - my Muse and Missus who in her words “Interferes a lot”. Luckily as we have
the same taste we usually tend to agree and the images wouldn’t be the same without her.When
I started out in photography I was scrabbling around wondering what to do and it was Pam who
said “Just make photographs like your drawings and paintings” and I did.Preparing biographies | | Portraits
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alan@luminous-lint.com |
Family history
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