I was recently reminded of a Gallery I went to last year Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography (13 October 2010 – 20 February 2011) at the V&A. The gallery showed 5 different artists who push the boundaries of photography by not even using a camera. Do you need a camera to be a photographer? To make amazing photographs?
I went to this exhibition when I was first really getting into photography so I was amazed at the idea as it had never even occurred to me that it was possible. To be honest I'm still pretty amazed by it. All five artists use different techniques and have completely different end results. But all classed as photography.
The V&A commissioned 5 short films to be made about these artists and to allow someone like me to get an insight in to their work and their world. Also showing me how they have made camera-less photography possible.
The Gallery was set up in a strange layout with individual sections that were clearly divided for each artist. The gallery winded around in an S shape with door ways leading to each part including the area where the 5 short films were shown. I Don't think the gallery were expecting many people as there were about 3 seats so sitting on the floor had to do.
Floris Neusüss method was photo-grams. He re did a piece by William Henry Fox Talbot of a large magnificent window at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, England. Leaving photographic paper over a certain amount of time, leaving the natural sun light to cast an image on to the paper of the window. He also gets people to take a certain position on the paper to cast shadows.
Pierre Cordier who treats his work as if he is more a painter then a photographer. He uses wax and varnishes, oil, glue and eggs. He uses these to create art on photographic paper. The process itself becomes the artwork and his style is his technique.
Susan Derges creates her work at night using the moon and a flashlight to be the exposure. She puts large sheets of photographic paper in to river to capture the movement she also manages to capture small animals such as tadpoles. Out of the five artists Derges was my favourite and I want to try recreate some of her work. Plus her ideas are always at the back of my mind when thinking of projects so who knows what I will come up with.
Adam Fuss works with the expression of life and death. He uses dead and alive animals in the studio to create his works his technique is called daguerreotype. Fuss's work is all about meanings symbolic and metaphorical.
Garry Fabian Miller creates glowing photographs that are abstract and not like any other kind i have seen before. He does this by casting shadows, or blocking and filtering light on photographic paper in the darkroom. His home landscape of Dartmoor gives him his inspiration for all his work.
