PHOTOGRAPHY
Shush! A dialogue between two artists
Christine Wood and Jane Poynter
Red Gallery Contemporary Art Space 2005
It’s pitch black and it’s cold. From the dunes it would be hard to work out what these two photographers are doing up to their knees in the sea in the middle of the night. In between shouts and hoots of laughter a flash fires and then they run back up the beach and start the process again.
Christine and Jane are creating camera-less prints underwater. Each 8 x 10" piece of photographic paper is exposed by a large flash unit while being held just under the surface of the water. Each ‘negative’ is unique, capturing all the elements of the seashore – the motion of the waves, sand, seaweed and foam.
Each print is scanned and the two photographers work on the digital files separately, coming together again in this exhibition. The works represent both the collaboration of the initial creative process and the different art practice of the two artists. Both artists have chosen to select small details from the paper negatives, but have presented their pieces using very different methods.
Christine Wood’s work is a series of large photographic prints mounted on perspex. The prints sizes have been arranged in a grid to reflect the inherent order in nature. Colours found in nature have been used to emphasize the shapes within the original black and white images.
