Stephen Gill (3) (1971–)

UK photographer Stephen Gill has again used his surroundings as the inspiration for this beautiful and evocative series. Hackney Flowers evolved from Gill's longstanding interest in Hackney, East London. For this volume, Gill collected flowers, seeds, berries and objects from Hackney, then pressed them in his studio and rephotographed them alongside his own photographs and other found ephemera, thus building up multi-layered images built from the area. Some of the base photographs were also show more buried in Hackney Wick, allowing the subsequent decay to imprint upon the images, stressing this collaboration with place. A parallel series also runs within this finely produced book, showing members of the Hackney public with floral details on their persons. This is a warm, poetic and visually exciting book containing images that leave an overwhelming sense of color, emotion and rhythm extracted from a single borough of London. show less

In this book what we get is 127 vertical images of field, a pillar and (usually) an animal. The camera is trained not on the pillar, but on the field behind it. The frame rarely shifts (and even then only barely), only what the camera trap captures shifts. And yet for all this similarity there is an absolute smorgasbord of variety. At times a single bird stands on the pillar, but at others a flock wheels away, a lone fox explores the ground, and in another a half of a bird obscures the show more camera. The seasons march, the grass grows, then dies. Life passes and is captured, in all its predictability, in all its banality, in all its glory and interest. show less

British photographer Stephen Gill created quirky pieces of art that combine the effects of photograms, faded film, light flares, chance, and his own unique vision of where to point his camera.

The photographs in this series were made in Brighton and Hove during 2010. They feature objects and creatures that I scooped up from the local surroundings and introduced into the body of my camera.

I hoped through this approach to encourage the spirit of the place to clamber aboard the images and be show more encapsulated in the film emulsion, like objects embedded in amber. My aim was to evoke the feeling of the area at the same time as describing its appearance.

This technique meant I was grappling at the point where intention collided with chance. It gave me less control, and there was a considerable element of surprise, but working with photography’s weaknesses alongside its subjective descriptive strengths is a challenge I enjoy.

The results included some highly detailed macro recordings amongst and within the landscapes and portraits. I like to think of these photographs as in-camera photograms in which conflict or harmony has been randomly formed in the final image depending on where the objects landed.

I also used a magnifying glass to concentrate the Brighton sunlight onto some of the negatives in order to etch markings directly onto the image. Some of the negatives I dipped in the sea. I was imagining and hoping the finished series would be like the regurgitated contents of a giant vacuum cleaner.

—Stephen Gill show less

This is UK photographer Stephen Gill's guide to his own particular world of objects, scenes and the things we do--so familiar and obvious that they fall below the usual threshold of the average personís attention. An original first book featuring eight series of photographs made in South East England--from lost people and the backs of advertising billboards to people gazing vacantly out the window of the London-to-Southend train--Gill's visual scrutiny of the everyday combines humor, formal show more rigor and empathy towards his human subjects. Text by Stephen Gill and introduction by humorist and television director, Jon Ronson. show less