Classic photographic techniques championed by new exhibition

Photography is now an ‘every-man’ medium, but what of the founding techniques of photography, of the pure essence of ‘capturing light’?

Non obsolescence, a new exhibition at Down Stairs in Herefordshire, addresses this important question.  The exhibition features three contemporary photographers using founding and traditional techniques including camera obscuras, collodion and film photography.  It forms a key element of the world-renowned Hereford Photography Festival 2011 and was conceived in response to Down Stairs‘ recently-opened exhibition, Change The World Or Go Home.

Curator Charlie Levine, director of Birmingham’s TROVE gallery, says: “The location for this important exhibition is entirely intentional.  These classic photographic formats changed the world, revolutionised documentation and modified our perceptions of life and truth.  These artists represent how our views of the world have changed, and represent a reason why the everyman photographer should ‘go home’.”

Non obsolescence opens with a preview reception on Saturday 29th October from 12-8pm and runs throughout the Hereford Photography Festival 2011 until 26th November.

Matthew Andrew explores preconceptions of what a reference photograph should be and how much information is conveyed to the viewer using a visual medium.  His featured work, Mimesis, uses film photography and is a series of images exploring truth, knowledge and photographic representation.

Minnie Weisz’s photographs are taken in abandoned and forgotten buildings in and around London. Within their rooms she creates narratives from the abandoned objects found inside that relate to the building’s history, and the view that floods the room from outside.  Using pinhole technique, traditional photography and documentary, Weisz weaves stories into the interior world of a building, creating an ode to each place she inhabits through photography.

Jo Gane’s work, Ancient and Modern, uses the wet plate collodion process, an historic photographic process invented in 1850.  It involves coating glass plates with collodion chemistry, sensitizing plates in silver nitrate, then exposing in the camera before developing or fixing, all in less than 10 minutes.  Her work aims to question the value placed on age and authenticity within the art/photographic market.

Running concurrently to Non obsolescence, the exhibition Change The World Or Go Home brings together a diverse range of established and up and coming artists, and questions the relevance of artists in today’s society and whether their work can change the status quo.

Change The World Or Go Home is open from Friday to Sunday 12-5pm until 30th December, or by appointment outside of these hours.

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