Stuckist Photographers
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The Stuckist Photographers are a group of photographers founded by Larry Dunstan and Andy Bullock in December 2003 in order to apply the values of the Stuckist painters to photography. However Andy Bullock resigned from the group in February 2007 and has no further connection with any Stuckist art group; he is currently pursuing his art and music with political 'agitpop' group ['deadfisch'].
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[edit] History
The Stuckist Photographers were brought about when Dunstan asked, "Is there a place for photography in Stuckism?" The photography group is independent of the artists' group, but in alliance with it. The photographers also state that they are a Remodernist group, meaning that their aspiration is to establish "a new spirituality in art".[1]
The Manifesto of the Stuckist Photographers states 11 points, among them:
- Concepts with integrity are at the heart of the Stuckist photograph
- The Stuckist Photographer develops vision and reality
- The Stuckist Photographer has depth, soul, heart, love and passion for the art of photography[2]
An exhibition of the Stuckist Photographers took place at the Lady Lever Art Gallery as part of The Stuckists Punk Victorian show during the 2004 Liverpool Biennial.
The other current members are Wolf Howard, Ella Guru and Charles Thomson. They each take a different approach to photography. Bullock, whose work is in the National Portrait Gallery, takes an introspective and sometimes political stance. Dunstan uses his facility as a commercial photography to address the question of beauty, as well as environmental issues and the effects of technology, such as airborne "tube dust". He has worked for i-D, GQ, Dazed & Confused, The Financial Times and The Observer, musicians including Ice-T, Aqualung and Asher D, and campaigns for Paul Smith. Howard works exclusively with pinhole photographs, and Thomson records his everyday experiences with a "snap-shot vocabulary".[1]
[edit] A pinhole photographer
Wolf Howard uses a light-proof wooden box 4" square with a fixed-size pinhole in the front. Photographic paper is placed at the back of the box. There is no lens and no viewfinder, so he estimates the aim of the camera. A wooden slider allows light into the box for an exposure which is between 40 seconds and 5 minutes. The camera is placed inside a light-proof bag to replace the photographic paper.
He develops a negative print (in his bathroom) and makes the final positive print by placing another sheet of photographic paper under the negative with a 5 second exposure under a light bulb. The whole process requires estimation throughout and he "faces many disappointments in his darkroom. The hard work will eventually pay off."
He describes his motivation:
| “ | There is something special about a pinhole camera. There is a beauty in its simplicity and rawness that technology has not been able to better. There is a timeless quality that can make the most uncomplicated subject seem full of poetry.
In each pinhole picture I take I hope to capture the joy and excitement that the early pioneering photographers (Fox Talbot and friends) must have felt when they took and developed photographs for the very first time.[4] |
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[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b "The Stuckist Photographers liverpoolmuseums.org.uk. Accessed April 21, 2006
- ^ "The Manifesto of the Stuckist Photographers" stuckismphotography.com. Accessed April 21, 2006
- ^ "Charles Thomson" liverpoolmuseums.org.uk. Accessed April 21, 2006
- ^ "Stuckism: Wolf Howard" stuckism.com. Accessed April 21, 2006
