Stephen Gill

 Stephen Gill has been a huge influence on my current project- 'The Grid'. I chose some random co-ordinates of land within Hinckley town and drew out a grid for a location project. Initially, I began looking at his project 'Off Ground' where he found items/rubble within the area yet still returned to the studio to photograph them. This means of location photography is different because you may not be on the land any more, but you have taken part of the area away with you instead.

I was then looking at his other projects such as 'Hackney Wick' which were really quirky but still managed to show his absolute undying love for the place. This then brought me to discover 'Hackney flowers'. Another project about a place that he loved but this time, he decided to incorporate the images themselves with actual pieces of the area laid on top of the images. In this case, he decided to use flowers as they were easy to dry out or press and then lie on top of a photograph. He then either scanned them or re- photographed them with the materials laid on top as if to create a whole new image again. I am definitely excited to try out this technique with my own project because the outcome just looks so unique.

 

Another project from Stephen Gill was called 'Outside In' where instead of lying objects on top of his prints, he decided to place the items themselves inside the back of his film camera so that when a shot was fired, the items would block the way and leave different shaped imprints. This reminds me of how you would create a photo gram in the darkroom because it's essentially the same concept as a solid object will block the light from reaching the light sensitive paper/film. This project turned out really well as you can see from the example image. He seems to have been able to make the items correspond with his subjects, especially when framing something such as a building as you can ensure that the items are parellel to the building etc.

I really genuinely love all of Gill's projects and I don't think that I could fault any one of them. he definitely knows how to experiment within the field of location photography.