The exhibition focuses on the work of contemporary artists who are increasingly inspired by the pioneering historical processes and physicality of photography. These artists strip back photography to its absolute fundamental elements: material, light and process. They explore the ‘thingness’ of photography. 

The exhibition brings together artists who are interested in the fundamentals of photography especially with regards to historical methods and thinking about photography within a fine art context. They explore the materiality of the photograph through experimentation with analogue photographic techniques in particular. They are mindful of material redundancy and the need to reconnect to old processes to create new contemporary works.

Photography has traditionally been a medium of faithful representation. This exhibition explores the movement within photography from representation to abstraction. We view an image and its subject and then analyse the surface and its objectivity. This analysis or awareness of surface/material forces the viewer to consume photography at a slower pace perhaps to question the definition of photography. The artists in this exhibition are all pushing the boundaries of photography the medium. They ask ‘What is a photograph in the 21st Century’

‘Contemporary art photography has become less about applying a pre-existing, fully functioning visual technology and more concerned with active choices in every step of the process. This is tied to an enhanced appreciation of the materiality and objecthood of the medium that reaches back to the early nineteenth century roots of photography.’

Cotton .C (2014) The Photograph as Contemporary Art .London: Thames and Hudson.