In Quiet Desperation - Photographs

Saturday 20th January was the opening night of my latest solo show at Play Dead in Southsea, despite the post-Christmas blues and the threat of rain the preview was a huge success. I only managed to get the one photo of the crowd inside the gallery but little did I know that while I was taking this photo one of my favourite photographers was also pointing the lens at me. Can you spot him...and better still can you spot the photo he was taking further down this blog post?

As I was following the mighty Nomad Clan I felt I needed to do something different with the gallery so, expecting a flat "no chance Korp" I went to Samo (Play Dead guvnor) with my idea to paint half the gallery black and cover it with paste ups, not just a few but entire rows of paste ups everywhere. Not only did Samo agree he also organised for the wall to be painted black before I arrived to save me time. Its not every gallery owner that will work this closely with you to not only bring your ideas alive but help develop them as well. 

​So we are a few seconds away from opening, Samo puts the spot lights on in the gallery and notices the amazing shadows being cast by these strong directional lights and shouts out "how about we don't put the big lights on and just use the spots so we can keep the shadows, it works with the theme of the show" and sure as hell it did. The whole point of the show was playing with the dark and light side of human nature so we left the main lights off and it created a much less clinical atmosphere and a real sense of foreboding.

​A massive thank you to Samo for letting me loose on the gallery and helping develop my idea and Handpoke Harry for painting the walls. Thank you to Donna for looking after me and asking awkward questions on live streams. Thank you to everyone that came out to the show and the art gang for always making me feel at home down in Southsea.

ANDREW WHYTE

There is no shortage of brilliant photographers in Southsea including Andrew Whyte from Long Exposures who took these amazing shots. Those reflections are on point. Follow him on Twitter.

MATT MABER

Matt shared with me some fantastic photos from my first show at Play Dead so I was intrigued to see what he came up with this time especially as I knew he was playing with film. You can check out his write up and blog here.