This exhibition will take place in Hugh's home in Eynsham and will cover his new figurative photography work made since lockdown, and also a selection of earlier experimental work.
Street parking is freely available nearby and there are regular buses (S1 and E1) from Oxford.
Like a moth I’m drawn to lights – we’re lucky to be living through a lighting revolution with LEDs, laser and microprocessor-controlled lighting. Through the design and creation of sometimes elaborate lighting set-ups, worlds of movement are opened up. All too often abstraction takes over; however, fascinating things happen on the boundaries between pictorial representation of a subject and meaningless chaos.
When I open the camera’s shutter for a long exposure, I am inviting all the movement in the scene to land on the camera’s sensor and record itself. The subject becomes the shutter – eclipsing the light source and creating the boundaries between light and dark.
My interest in figurative photography, has emerged from life drawing and looking at the human figure as a way of investigating the properties of light when used with long exposure photography. By using fluorescent and reflective materials under carefully crafted lighting, movement becomes like a paintbrush. I have been collaborating with performance artists to experience the creative process from the inside and also to explore and practice some of my ideas beyond the photographic process.