Photographic Artist Jim Read from Derbyshire in
the UK has been a lifelong autodidact. Read creates photographs (he is clear to say "Make and not shoot. Shots come out of guns") and then puts them together into one full image.
"I've alway been the late learner having been self taught it takes longer for the
light to dawn especially the creative one. I was scared as well the blank white
screen is just as intimidating as a piece of paper or canvas. I had
listened to D. Hockney bang on about copying on Radio 4 everytime he came back
home and now Tracey Emin's at it as well. They gave me a push, why shouldn't I
try to copy what others do? So I started and looked and looked at Catherine
McIntyres images not only to see what she'd done but how as
well. Gradually I moved away fom the copying and used the
Derbyshire countryside around me to make images that really pleased me. Where I
am at the moment is making stuff that looks 'real' but is actually composed of
many layers brought together in harmony. Years ago I came across the work of Annie W Brigman
I've liked the figurative genre of image making ever since. I use a covered
figure in my images to allow the model to pose in ways that are not restricted
by connotations of gender and age, the figure thus clad becomes just that a
figure within the image."
The image you see here is called 'Permeable light'
and consists of four photographs merged together in harmony. The land under
all three is permeated by shafts and tunnels some dating back to the Roman
occupation. They follow the seams of lead to be found all over the area,
the spoil from their endeavours became footpaths and ideal places to impose a
figure in the landscape. Time appears both to stand still here and at the same
time race through its history.
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