At first glance, Hannah Whitaker’s images look both painterly and digital, perhaps the result of a cut-and-paste collage in Photoshop. Look closer, though, and you realise the photographer actually creates her pieces entirely by camera on a single sheet of film. They are a testament to her preference for analogue experimentation over digital manipulation.
This isn’t easy to achieve: it’s an intricate, complex process that sees Whitaker hand-cutting paper screens to conceal parts of the film, exposing one section at a time until the entire sheet has been covered. The resulting photographs succeed in interrogating the medium by creating experimental imagery within the confines of analog photography, thus challenging the structural limitations of the medium through a rule-based process.
The New York-based artist will show her photographs – including ‘Perch 2’ – alongside pieces by fellow contemporary American artists at the Shifting Landscapes exhibition at Sophia Contemporary Gallery this month.
‘Shifting Landscapes’ is on until 23 June at Sophia Contemporary Gallery, 11 Grosvenor Street, W1K 4QB; sophiacontemporary.com
